The Power of Flowers

When I think of beauty, when I envision the good life, flowers

immediately come to mind. They have a powerful hold over our
spirit and never fail to uplift us. I have made the bold choice to never
live
a day without fresh flowers or blossoming plants. A part of me would
die
inside if I couldn’t gaze at their delicate beauty, smell their aroma,
and
let their colors charm me. I choose to spend money on what some
might
consider an extravagance. I must be true to my commitment to
flowers in
order to live a good life.
The Buddha envisioned the universe turning into a bouquet of flowers
at the hour of his enlightenment. Because my earliest memory is of
being
surrounded by color in my mother’s flower garden, I have a strong
feeling
that my soul is nurtured by my passion for flowers. The garden is my
metaphor for living well, creating paradise on earth by cultivating a
garden. The beauty of flowers makes life so much more beautiful,
more
sacred, more intensely alive.
Our brain chemistry changes when we’re in natural beauty. The
rejuvenating power of nature is well known. I’m glad to see hospitals
having healing gardens, where the patients can water and prune and
walk
among the beauty. Flowers are there for us all on the happiest days of
our lives, as well as at the saddest times. Flowers have kept me
company
during the most difficult times of great pain and loss as silent
witnesses to

the mysteries of life, the power of love. Flowers respond to our

tenderness
and care. I talk to flowers as I prune and arrange them. I let them
know
how much pleasure they bring me. Flowers speak to us by blooming,
opening up their buds to colorful blossoms. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
said, “It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your
rose so
important.”
Flowers are a great gift to our sense of sight, our sense of smell, and
our
sense of touch. We eat some flowers in salads and soups. My favorite
tea is
jasmine. Flowers call to us, they speak a language we can almost
hear.
In a vase, flowers sing in a chorus of colorful grace notes, quivering
in the breeze by an open window. Flowers provide accents of
temporary
color in a room. In a garden the colors seem to draw us in; we come to
greet the new lily blooming. The fi rst flower mentioned in literature is
the
lotus, the flowering water lily, a favorite of Claude Monet. Through his
paintings of water lilies and the lilies in his pond at his glorious
gardens
in Giverny, he helped teach me to look into the depth of things, to
expand
my perspective rather than observing just the surface: “I have always
loved the sky and the water, greenery, flowers. All these elements
were to
be found in abundance here in my little pond.”
Monet was a passionate gardener. He loved nature so much he
created
in Giverny a magnificent corner of the universe. He once said, “I’m
good
for two things, painting and gardening.” If you haven’t been to his
house
and gardens, I urge you to make the pilgrimage. He once told a friend,
“Everything I have earned has gone into these gardens. I do not deny
that I am proud of them. I am very happy, very enchanted . . . for I am
surrounded here by everything I love . . . My desire would be to stay
just
like this forever, in a quiet corner of nature.”
Do you have a favorite flower? Do you have several favorites? Are
there some flowers that have a strong hold over you? Do you have a
sentimental feeling about certain flowers? What are some of your
favorite
scents? I carried lily-of-the-valley on my wedding day when Peter and
I were married. Alexandra and Brooke carried bouquets of lily-of

the-valley and wore halos of this delicate fragrant bellflower. I have a

granddaughter named Lily.
We should accept the invitation to live with and appreciate fl owers
every day. Flower children wear flowers to symbolize peace and love.
Flowers symbolize perfect truth and purity. The Chinese and Japanese
especially fi nd significance in flowers. The Japanese saw the
transcience
of life in the cherry blossom. The ancient art of flower arranging
continues
to add meaning to our lives today when we create a small bouquet for
a
kitchen table.
Leonardo da Vinci always had flowers around him. He loved the scent.
He believed the five senses are the ministers of the soul. He talked
about
the synergy of the senses—a great secret of great artists and
scientists. Of
a garden, he exclaimed, “Who would believe that so small a space
could
contain the images of the whole universe.”

There was a cute story in Kay Redfield Jamison’s enthusiastic book

Exuberance: The Passion for Life. She quoted Eric Hanson’s book
Orchid
Fever, in which he interviewed an orchid grower who had started with
a
single windowsill plant. “Pretty soon, I decided I wanted another
orchid.
First a red one, then a pink one, then I had to have a white one with
spots
. . . I couldn’t stop . . . now I have a 2,200 square foot greenhouse with
200,000 orchid plants!”
Jamison writes of another enthusiast who talked about how his fi rst
wife couldn’t handle his obsession: “One morning she sat him down at
the
breakfast table and explained that he would have to choose between
his
orchid collection and their marriage. ‘That’s the easiest decision I’ll
ever
make,’ he told her. ‘You’re out of here, baby!’”
I’m lucky enough to be married to a tender, gentle soul who loves
every

new bud on our rose bushes, every new blooming geranium blossom.
Peter
and I sit in our tiny backyard surrounded by Nikko blue hydrangea in
an
ecstatic trance of love and gratitude for the flowers that cheer us
along.
We renew ourselves each day through their magical beauty and grace.
Plant seeds, water, weed, prune, fertilize. Take time to grow roses.
Take time to smell the roses. Look and really see the miracle of
creation
in a single fl ower.