graceful in decline

there are many lovely things that cj does for me during the week but one of the nicest is to take the twins shopping most saturday mornings and bring back a bunch of flowers (chosen by them) and some scones. with chubbies incharge of flower selection we end up with some interesting choices (to say the least: is a lettuce ever really a flower??) but one thing i've been able to observe are the different ways in which diffrerent flowers bloom, fade and wilt. carnations go out very quickly. roses just fall apart. but tulips are almost more beautiful. in their final moments than they are when still in bud. so i think i'm going to adopt that as my approach to growing up. less like a rose. more like a tulip. possibly without the clogs.