Dear Reader:

The third amaryllis bloomed yesterday on a cloudy Sunday morning. It brought sunshine into an  (otherwise) rather gloomy, shadowy surrounding…it “restored my soul”…”my cup runneth over.”

What makes it even more special is that there are three more buds about to burst open. So, not only do I get to enjoy the gorgeous bloom today, but I have the excitement of anticipation for three more to follow.

I have mentioned to many of you earlier… that when my marriage went south…I made a promise to myself to buy fresh flowers every week and I kept that promise. I needed it emotionally and spiritually for strength because flowers bring me such happiness.

The purchase of fresh flowers was a personal reward for me for getting through another week with the promise of a weekend and fresh flowers to renew my strength for the next one.

I decided to do some research on the relationship between flowers and healthy living and discovered some new ideas on the subject from different researchers.

Here are some interesting findings from different universities:

 “Flowers and Their Effect on Us”

We all love flowers, don’t we? Now researchers are proving that flowers have a significant positive impact on our lives.

Last year at Harvard Medical School a behavioral research study showed that fresh-cut flowers have an important role in our lives. Psychologist Dr. Nancy Etcoff said, “I’m particularly intrigued to find that people who live with flowers report fewer episodes of anxiety and depressed feelings. Our results suggest that flowers have a positive impact on our well being.” That research study also found that living with flowers can provide a boost of energy, happiness and enthusiasm at work.”

In 2005, a Rutgers University behavioral study had similar findings. Said Jeanette Haviland-Jones, professor of psychology at Rutgers, “Common sense tells us that flowers make us happy. Now, science shows that not only do flowers make us happier than we know, they have strong positive effects on our emotional well being.”

In a Society of American Florists report on that 10-month-long Rutgers study, it is noted: “Flowers have an immediate impact on happiness.  Flowers have a long-term positive effect on moods. Flowers make intimate connections.”

Dr. Andrew Weil, author of “Healthy Aging,” among many other books, includes bringing flowers into one’s home among the eight important steps to aging gracefully. “Any activity that makes you feel more alive, more connected to others and to nature, less isolated, more comfortable with change, is beneficial. It will enhance your physical and mental health.”

Dr. Haviland-Jones of Rutgers agrees. “Happier people live longer, healthier lives and are more open to change. Our research shows that a small dose of nature, like flowers, can do a world of wonder for our well-being as we age.”

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This past pre-Christmas season I did something a little different…on the first day of December I took some potted green/red poinsettias to family, neighbors and friends. I had found them on sale at Lowe’s and bought several. I wanted to deliver them earlier this year so the receivers would have almost a full month before Christmas to enjoy them.

I am hoping that the recipients of these Christmas flowers are still enjoying them….since mine is still sitting, as a centerpiece on my dining room table in all its original beauty, for me to seek pleasure in… every day at every meal.

In another article I really liked, titled ” When Life Gets Hard” the author, Geneen Roth, remembers a purchase she made after discovering that she and her husband had lost their entire life savings in a financial scam. She bought peonies…lots of them….that even on sale, were still costly.

I could relate to her questionable purchase…because some times when life gets really hard…we have to grasp the one thing that still reminds us that it is good… that life is still beautiful. Money will come and go…but the moments we live, the beauty we inhale, will be what defines our lives. And now an….excerpts from:

 “When Life Gets Hard” 

I bought thirty-six peonies yesterday at Trader Joe’s. They were having a sale, six stems for $6.99 and although my grandmother would have disapproved—she wouldn’t buy flowers because “they always die”—I decided that staggering beauty was at least as important as Greek yogurt.

As the cashier—a twenty-something woman with pink hair, three silver nose rings and a rainbow-serpent tattoo twining around her left arm—was ringing up one double-ruffled bunch after the other, she said, “forty-two dollars and worth every penny!” (She understood me.) 

Roth goes on to talk about the fear of loss of financial security…but out of these troubled times…she did learn a great life lesson to take with her throughout the rest of her journey.

No one can take your “moment” from you. God has given each of us every single moment in our lives and we should never, ever let another human being destroy our sacred moments of breath…of life.

…after we lost our money, and because wandering one millimeter away from this exact moment (where nothing was wrong or lacking) felt like going insane with grief and terror, I realized that what I had been looking for (in relationships and in success, in chocolate and in wealth but mostly in more of anything or everything) was here the whole time.

In the smoothness of the cup in my hand, in the click of my heel on the pavement, in the sound of the hummingbird’s wings. In the fact that water came out of a faucet when I turned it. It was as if I’d been blind and half-dead for sixty years and was suddenly sprung into a life brimming with color and double-ruffle peonies.

When you’ve lost your money and think you might be living with your dog and your husband in a friend’s trailer and you feel—for the first time—indescribably unbelievably stunningly rich, you realize there is nothing to find or have or get that you don’t already have. You realize that for every doubt, for every fear, for every question you’ve ever had, there is only one answer, and it is now.

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So until tomorrow….go get some fresh flowers and enjoy them for each moment of their life while doing the same for yours.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

* Gotta love a man in a tie….

 Please keep Mandy and John in your thoughts and prayers this week…everyone started back to school last week…with all kinds of germ bugs just waiting to attack…John had  bronchitis/laryngitis and was home one day…by the end of the week Eva Cate had the flu and little Jakie had a rash and a cough…with everyone on some kind of medicine…preventive or mandatory.

Let’s hope that good health prevails this week!