Smell the real flowers

Most people are awaiting virtual reality, I am awaiting virtuous reality

I always wonder how flowers spark a variety of emotions. 

While the smell of fresh flowers positively alters our moods, their colours communicate a mood almost instantly. 

The white lilies bring peace to our mind, while the red roses depict the importance of love in the world.

A few days ago, I stopped by the nearby flower shop. I was pleased to see the colourful and inviting flowers decorating the shop. 

However, I was upset when I noticed that these flowers were artificial. 

On top of that, I even noticed that the attracting essence from the flowers was thanks to the spray used by the shopkeeper.

I had always had a craze for varieties of flowers. 

But looking at these lifeless ones that had no connection with the reality was very disappointing. I was even sad that these artificial flowers were sprayed with essence so that they would give the feeling that they were real.

These flowers helped me realise how far we are going from reality. 

Thanks to the social media sites, just like the flowers, we are getting distant from the real world.

We talk about our Facebook friends whom we do not even know in real life but forget to think about those living next door. 

We now prefer chatting on our phones rather than having a face-to-face communication. 

I hope that we will switch back to the real world from the artificial world before it is too late.

(Published in The Gulf Today on April 16, 2016)