Monday, June 13, 2011

Beautiful But Fatal

I'm relaxing in a neighbor's backyard, and she leans my lounging chair back to make sure I'm comfortable.

Then she exclaims, "Look!  The delphinium!"

I turn to see the brightest blue flowers.  What beauty!  That blue shames even the sky. 

Later, I learn that this plant's beauty comes with a caution:  it's poisonous.  It can actually kill a person if eaten.

Dr. Alice Russell, in the Department of Horticultural Science at North Carolina State University, reports that this gorgeous plant will cause "burning of the lips and mouth, numbness of the throat, intense vomiting and diarrhea, muscular spasms, paralysis of the respiratory system, convulsions." Her list concludes with a toxic warning:  Fatal.

All from a tiny blue buttercup.  I think about the nature of temptation.  It always seems tiny, harmless--beautiful even--that thing we want that's outside the boundaries. 

Remember the delphinium.  It's beautiful but fatal. 

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Journal:  What's tempting me right now that's really only going to damage my mind, body, and spirit?