Day 49: July 26, 2012 ~ Flowers to Feed the Soul

Day 49: July 26, 2012 ~ Flowers to Feed the Soul

"Bread feeds the body, indeed, but flowers feed also the soul."

The Koran

I'm wondering how the heck it took me until Day 49 to get around to flowers! Flowers are my favorite things to photograph. Everywhere I go, I take pictures of flowers. Even at Disneyland last weekend, as we were waiting in line for the Peter Pan ride, I got out my camera and took pictures of a small patch of purple flowers in front of the ride. I couldn't help myself—they were just so beautiful. Truly, is there anything more beautiful on this earth than flowers?

Flowers feed our souls, they delight our senses with their exquisite fragrance, they brighten the landscape with their vibrant colors, they inspire our hearts to open to expressions of art and poetry and love. I think of Claude Monet, who said: "I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers". And I think of Georgia O'Keeffe, who said: "Nobody sees a flower—really—it is so small it takes time—we haven't time—and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time." Thank God she took the time to really see and share with the world her intimate experience with nature and flowers, revealing their most exquisite beauty.

As I think about it, I have some distinct memories about flowers that have made indelible impressions on my soul. One involved a mule ride in the Grand Canyon. I'm riding on this mule on a narrow path winding down the canyon, with nothing but dirt and rock walls all around, when we come to an overhang area, and what catches my eye is a beautiful little flower growing out of a crack in the rock wall—out in the middle of nowhere where no one would ever see it, there it is in all its glory, no need to be seen or acknowledged for its beauty...just being beauty, simply giving its unique gift to the world.


And I think of winters in Connecticut—after several months of seeing nothing but brown leafless trees and snow covered ground, how exciting it is to see signs of LIFE and COLOR return when those first crocuses pop up through the snow in March or April, a promise of spring's return, followed by yellow daffodils and forsythia, and then pink and rose colored azalea and rhododendron, delicate dogwoods, and the intoxicating lavender of lilacs in May. What a marvel are the crocuses, though, such tiny seemingly fragile little flowers—but think of the strength they must have to break through that thick blanket of snow! They remind us of our own inner strength in harsh times, and the promise of new life and hope.

Today I thank God for the flowers, nature's magnificent palette of color, fragrance and beauty, for their gifts of hope and renewal and infinite love. Blessed be.