My Friends, My Flowers

The Flower of Mending
by Vachel Lindsay

(To Eudora, after I had had certain dire adventures.)


When Dragon-fly would fix his wings,
When Snail would patch his house,
When moths have marred the overcoat
Of tender Mister Mouse,

The pretty creatures go with haste
To the sunlit blue-grass hills
Where the Flower of Mending yields the wax
And webs to help their ills.

The hour the coats are waxed and webbed
They fall into a dream,
And when they wake the ragged robes
Are joined without a seam.

My heart is but a dragon-fly,
My heart is but a mouse,
My heart is but a haughty snail
In a little stony house.

Your hand was honey-comb to heal,
Your voice a web to bind.
You were a Mending Flower to me
To cure my heart and mind.

" Friends are flowers in the garden of life. "
~Portuguese Proverb


Yesterday i had a wonderful time with someone very close to me. She is my cousin, my sister, my friend rolled into one. We had a lot of laughs talking about the kind of look we were avoiding (er, shunning) lest we look old and frumpy. We exchanged harmless barbs about ourselves...poke, poke, poking each other with jokes. The deeper things in our hearts were easily unwrapped and the strands of our current lives we unravelled comfortably.

I am blessed to have relationships like these. When i find myself in "certain dire adventures" and get bruised, i am mended by them. And the ordinary days become special -- those days where nothing tumultuous is happening, the cruising-along mode --- yet feeling alive because of the joy shared with friends.

The Eloquence of Flowers

"Let me thank the little Cousin in flowers, which without lips, have language -- " wrote Emily Dickinson to Eugenia Hall in 1885. For Dickinson, as for her contemporaries, flowers were repositories of cultural meaning and communicated emotions privately.

The Fury Of Flowers And Worms
by Anne Sexton

Let the flowers make a journey
on Monday so that I can see
ten daisies in a blue vase
with perhaps one red ant
crawling to the gold center.
A bit of the field on my table,
close to the worms
who struggle blinding,
moving deep into their slime,
moving deep into God's abdomen,
moving like oil through water,
sliding through the good brown.

The daisies grow wild
like popcorn.
They are God's promise to the field.
How happy I am, daisies, to love you.
How happy you are to be loved
and found magical, like a secret
from the sluggish field.
If all the world picked daisies
wars would end, the common cold would stop,
unemployment would end, the monetary market
would hold steady and no money would float.

Listen world.
if you'd just take the time to pick
the white flowers, the penny heart,
all would be well.
They are so unexpected.
They are as good as salt.
If someone had brought them
to van Gogh's room daily
his ear would have stayed on.
I would like to think that no one would die anymore
if we all believed in daisies
but the worms know better, don't they?
They slide into the ear of a corpse
and listen to his great sigh.

Travel Light. Carry Only What You Need.

Today I am making a choice not to be weighed down by circumstances -- past or present, nor by events beyond my control. I choose to be joyful. I choose to be energetic -- in spite of a big headache which can't seem to be resolved by a strong pill.

I learned that those who live by grace travel light.

I Heart Flowers

Deeply shocked over the turn of events today. One high-ranking official accused for plunder and corruption shot himself to death in front of his parents' graves. The local social networks are abuzz with distasteful words. Judgments fly in the face of investigative proceedings. A pandora's box had been opened and many must be shaking, contemplating an escape.

There is too much negativity inundating my sensibilities. Turning to life-giving matters, matters...so much --- lest i become worn down and world-weary.

And that is why i heart flowers.

I Heart You

Funny how today's younger set express their love for someone or something by substituting the word heart for the word love. "I heart you." "I heart this pair of shoes." "I heart that movie." The heart does represent so much. Probably to get far from being cheesy with the overuse of the word love, heart sounds more hip, and so now.

Words evolve. People evolve. I have no problem with the word heart. Whatever form or shape it takes, as long as love is expressed and felt then i'll take "I heart you" anytime.

Love is a Flower

Yep, February is in the door. There will be a deluge of adverts for making Valentine's Day special. Be prepared for chocolates, stuffed toys, hotels and trips, jewelry, dining, concerts, and yes, flowers. Lest we succumb to commercialism and make everything overly familiar and boring it would be good to revisit the motivation behind those things. Then perhaps, appreciate better the heart behind the gestures and the spirit behind those ubiquitous gifts.

Delightful, colorful, calming, healing...of all Valentine's Day gifts, flowers are the most popular by far.

Jeannette Haviland-Jones, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology at Rutgers explored the link between flowers and life satisfaction in a 10-month study of participants' behavioral and emotional responses to receiving flowers. The results show that flowers are a natural and healthful moderator of moods.

1. Flowers have an immediate impact on happiness. All study participants expressed "true" or "excited" smiles upon receiving flowers, demonstrating extraordinary delight and gratitude. This reaction was universal, occurring in all age groups.

2. Flowers have a long-term positive effect on moods. Specifically, study participants reported feeling less depressed, anxious and agitated after receiving flowers, and demonstrated a higher sense of enjoyment and life satisfaction.

3. Flowers make intimate connections. The presence of flowers led to increased contact with family and friends.

"Common sense tells us that flowers make us happy," said Dr. Haviland-Jones. "Now, science shows that not only do flowers make us happier than we know, they have strong positive effects on our emotional well being."

With that let me just get some flowers for my husband, my children, and friends. Love is in those flowers.