Coleus

This coleus I saw growing at Belton House in Lincolnshire. Remarkably, its flowers are less impressive than its leaves. The latter are chacterised by purples and pinks, as well as deep greens, which far out-class the tiny white and lilac flowers which shoot up on a pale stem. The flower stem comes and goes, but those fabulous leaves last as long as the plant.

There are those who are well known for their impressive good deeds, famous for their benefaction, like building a hospital or founding a charity. Then there are those whose regular, every-day lives are characterised by small but frequent acts kindness and grace. Our lives might be better measured by all the little things we do on a daily basis rather than big, one-off deeds of a lifetime. The latter impresses humankind, but the former, I think, better pleases God.

The trivial round, the common task,

Would furnish all we ought to ask;

Room to deny ourselves; a road

To bring us, daily, nearer God.

-J. Keble