Grandma's Flowers

when I was young, my grandmother had a garden in her balcony. she was very devoted to her garden. it was her treasure.
she lived on the thenth floor of a very old building.
from up there, you almost couldn't see the floor. not because of the height, but because of the amount of wild life growing around in the balcony. there were flowers of all kind, flowers that didn't match with each other. everything was a mess. I never understood why she had so many different kinds of plants, but I never asked.
but when one of my aunts asked, she simply said, "flowers don't have to match. I just buy what I like. because I don't care about the combination, what I like about them is that, when I see them in the morning, they fill me. and I feel proud, because I can take care of them. it's more about what I think about those plants rather than what others can see." 
and I thought she was right.

when I was still young, but not that young, my grandfather grew sick.
we all had to take care of him. so my grandmother stopped taking care of her plants.
and one day I asked her why her plants looked so dead.
and she sighed and said, "when you are very busy you forget about the beautiful things in life."