I parked the car today next to the building in Paradise Valley where I live, and because I hadn't found my picture for the day, I began the search.  Lately, I've noticed that right next to beautiful things, there are signs of decay and dying. Next to the car parking lane were beautiful roses, and because we are in what passes for winter in San Diego, the detritus of flower bushes hangs around longer than it does in other seasons.  We don't have snow to cover it and mask the decay, so a dying blossom just stays there next to the beautiful flowers that are ubiquitous in our part of the world.  Roses bloom all winter... which means they die all winter, and the dying ones sometimes don't get plucked off by gardeners. Perhaps that's the way life is, and the winter here is a time when we are reminded in a not-so-subtle-way that all beauty fades and dies. I looked around and a camelia blossom that survived yesterday's rain was beautifully white and perky.  The buds which will open in a day or two have been scarred by the rain which people who grew up in San Diego call a storm.  There's a lesson in this somewhere.