This is the season…
of one of my favourite wild flowers.
Beautiful in colour. Fragile in nature. Resilient in thriving.
The red poppy worn around the world in remembrance of battlefield deaths has nothing to do with the blood shed in the brutal clashes of World War I - as I once thought. Instead, it symbolises the wild flowers that were the first plants to grow in the churned-up soil of soldiers' graves in Flanders, Belgium. Little else could grow in the blasted soil that became rich in lime from the rubble.
A colour of…
Love for family, for home, for the land.
Passion for justice, peace and liberty.
Blood spilt by the innocent.
Whatever way it’s framed, innocents have lost their lives in Gaza by a nation seeking retribution after the October 7, 2023 attack.
How many poppies can we expect to see rising from the graves of the innocents, the thousands of children, mothers and fathers killed?
And how long more do we wait for them to start flowering?
