A - Z Challenge - U

The reflection of British wildflowers in emotions.

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Urtica urens. Unaware.

Like the larger Common Stinging Nettle, the toothed leaves of this smaller plant Urtica are covered with stinging hairs. The small unisexual flowers are crowded into numerous clusters in the axis of the leaves. Pale green, bristly and stinging, the flowers have no petals. The Small Nettle grows in wasteland.

Unaware of the prickles, the passer-by soon learns to their cost how the nettle stings and throbs. Caveat emptor, an old Latin phrase meaning let the buyer beware—a warning that notifies a buyer that the goods he or she is buying are subject to all defects, seen or unseen. Be ready to think quickly in a situation and react to things that you are not expecting to encounter. Like a Samurai, spring around to face the threat with sword drawn. Like a woman walking alone at night on a deserted street, be ready to knock on the nearest door if a stalker is following you. Like a footballer, be ready to grab the ball and run to victory. By being unaware, you could get stung, physically, mentally, or financially. 

Rudyard Kipling quote: “If you can keep your wits about you while all others are losing theirs, and blaming you. . . . The world will be yours and everything in it, what's more, you'll be a man, my son.”

Proverb: They that sow the wind, shall reap the whirlwind.