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       When I began to study a spiritual form of Japanese flower-arranging called Ikebana-Sangetsu,
       I discovered I was slowly developing a deeper understanding of the connection between all life.
       In our first class, my teacher said that flowers can actually talk, that they each have their
       own way of being beautiful. They have 'prana', life force, so you have to pay full attention
       to them, rather than imposing your own ideas of beauty on them. So I began to ask the flowers
       how they wanted to be arranged, what positioning would make them feel most beautiful, and I
       waited and listened.

       Even after they had been set in the vase, I would discover sometimes that in the morning
       they had rearranged themselves during the night. Even though they were secured in the
       vase, they always seemed to be minutely straining to find their right place. At the same
       time, they were not fully independent; they needed loving care. They were dependent on
       me, or whomever their caretaker was for the day, to water them, to keep them moist.
       Sometimes I would watch other people spraying water on the arrangements and I would
       feel so moved. The droplets left on the green petals and flower buds seemed to be dew-
       drops of compassion, so delicately poised, touching the source of life, nourishing the
       heart of beauty. This experience made me feel how simple it could be, if our minds and
       hearts are set in the right way, to water not only the plants, but human beings - to treat
       all living creatures in a way that allows them their right to be beautiful, in their own space
       and time.

      What we came to notice in our class was that flowers could also listen. Our teacher urged
       us to always remind the flowers when we passed how beautiful they were and to thank them
       for sharing their beauty with us. When we did this, when we made our arrangements with
       this kind of love and devotion, we always found that the flowers remained beautiful and fresh
       for many more days than expected.                                                            - Pamela Bloom

Taken from Buddhists Acts of Compassion
by Pamela Bloom.