Carpe diem!

Sieze the day!

By the front door of the house, is a mounted picture.  It is one of the first things we see on our way to breakfast and on our way out the front door to begin our day.  Depicted in this picture is what has inspired how I've lived my life since 1989, the year I experienced John Keating teach at Welton Academy.  This was made into a movie entitled Dead Poets Society.  This masterpiece from Peter Weir became an Oscars favorite in the 1989 Academy Awards.

Anyone who has seen the movie would probably remember Professor Keating encouraging his students to seize the day.  "Carpe diem lads, seize the day, make your lives extraordinary!" he told his students.

Somewhere in my garden grows a mysterious plant called "Queen of the Night" or Epiphyllum oxypetalum.  It is a cactus with the habit of an orchid.  It's origin is unknown.  Some say it came from Sri Lanka and some say South America.  It rarely flowers and when it flowers it only does so at night.  The flowers are large and produce one of the most fragrant smells in the plant kingdom. By sunrise the flowers wither. 

Flowers have started to wither by sunrise.

To fully appreciate this plant, one has to wake up at dawn in order to see the beautiful flowers and smell the amazing fragrance but this opportunity rarely occurs and when it does the window is just too short.

Don't miss your rare chance to be with this queen.  Carpe diem!  Seize the day!

Or is it seize the night?