Plainness...I came across these two little flowers on a shrub that looked as if it might not last out the summer.  The leaves lacked the vitality that many growing things in San Diego County demonstrate. I looked at the blossoms closely and I looked at the larger shrub, and I saw dried, withered clumps of leaves, and the things that bothered me more than anything else about the plant were the spiders.  Spiders seemed to know the shrub was abandoned, and they seemed to know that nobody would care what happened to the flowers. I am determined to keep track of this plant.  I will walk to it several times each week, and I will remember what it must feel like to be withering while being surrounded by plants that are thriving. I probably won't take pictures of the few other flowers on the shrub.  In the city where I live, I will look for other flowers just like these to see how a very healthy shrub of the same kind as this one is developing.

I will try to be aware of the esteem we bestow on beauty, and I will try to be understanding and considerate when I come across anything that once lived and thrived but has fallen now on difficult times.