I love flowers! But not the typical bouquet of a dozen roses or carnations. My favorite flowers are wildflowers. I love the various textures and natural movement, the splashes of random color, and the unruliness and unpredictability of the bouquet! My favorite thing to do is to pick them straight from the ground and put them in a vase, but this doesn’t happen as often as I would like…living in a subdivision does not afford the luxury of acres of wildflowers.
So instead, I bargain shop for flowers. Once every two weeks, I go to the local market and search the “bottom of the barrel” in the discount section. The picture above is what I found this week…I was on the hunt for pinks and reds as Valentine’s Day is quickly approaching. Every single one of these flowers were drooping, broken, and “old”…but what I saw was an opportunity to trim them up, cut off the dead leaves, give them some food, pair them with other “like-minded” flowers, and make them shine!
As I was trimming and organizing these beauties, I thought to myself…flowers are not unlike people. Is there someone in your life that needs a little work? Is there a relationship in your life that used to be beautiful, but now is drooping and starting to die? So many of us have relationships that we wish were better, stronger, and quite frankly, less drama. However, we can’t forget that beneath the broken stem or wilting petals, there used to be a beautiful flower.
At times, it is easier to walk away from someone who requires TLC…just like these flowers in the bargain barrel. I could have went to the premier section and not spent the time searching, trimming, and organizing…but what’s the fun in that?! What I have instead is some old flowers with renewed souls.
So since this is the week of love, I challenge you…if there is a relationship that is heavy on your heart, reach out to that person…face that wildflower relationship, with all its variations, unruliness, and unpredictability. You may just find that they have been waiting for you to pick them out of the barrel of dying relationships and want nothing more than to shine with you again.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
My Best, and As Always…