Pick ye wild flowers while you may!!!

Corinna's Going a Maying
Robert Herrick 1591-1674

To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old time is still a-flying;
And the same flower that smiles today
Tomorrow will be dying.

The glorious lamp of heaven the sun,
The higher he's a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he's to setting.

That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times still succeed the former.

Then be not coy, but use your time,
And, while ye may, go marry;
For, having lost but once your prime,
You may forever tarry.

Her father always took her to pick wild flowers in the spring. He was an electrician for a mining company.. When the mechanic and the electrician sat to eat lunch together, they discussed which flowers were in bloom.

She loved the hikes on the hillside and when she was almost a woman she wore a full circle skirt covered with flowers. In the center of each flower someone had painstakingly added small rhinestones. When her father saw her standing among the violas and pinks he thought that she was the most beautiful flower of them all.

He would always say "Pick ye wild flowers while you may!". Her heart still sings with the memory.

b

note: The wildflowers are from the neighboring fields on the way to Panera Cafe and Bakery.