'Tis the Season for Flowers--A Paragraph a Day

People from a planet without flowers would think
we must be mad with joy the whole time
to have such things about us.
-Iris Murdoch

There really are few things in this world that are more amazing and more beautiful than flowers.  Not that it's a competition--flowers don't care that they're more graceful and beautiful than other things--but when we think about things with which we can fill our lives that will make our lives richer, flowers have to be high on the list that we come up with.  Right now, it's spring up here in the northern hemisphere, so we're being treated to a steady feast--visual and olfactory--of the wonder of flowers.  They really do enrich our lives if we allow them to, for they give us something to marvel at and to appreciate; it's almost impossible to look closely at a flower without feeling a sense of wonder at just how it's put together, just how it's made to be such a remarkable thing.  And flowers, of course, have no ego that we know of.  They don't compare themselves to other flowers, and they don't feel themselves superior if they're bigger or more colorful or more fragrant than their neighbors.  They're a wonderful model of living for us--they just are, and they don't try to be anything else.  They are beautiful, and they share that beauty with the world, even with the pollen that the bees gather to make their honey.  This is the perfect time of year to appreciate the gift of flowers in our lives, the gift that so many people who tend to their gardens share with us all, year after year.

Isn't It Supposed to Be Spring?--A Paragraph a Day

The first day of spring is one thing, and the first spring day is another.
The difference between them is sometimes as great as a month.
Henry van Dyke

We're about a week into spring now, and it doesn't look a whole lot different outdoors than it did three weeks ago.  I had to scrape ice off of my windshield this morning, and we've had some pretty bitter winds and grey days this past week.  But that's okay.  It's only spring in name so far, and I've learned over time to temper my wants and desires and allow myself to accept things as they are rather than being upset that they aren't as I would prefer them to be.  I'd love to come home from work and be able to go for a nice long bike ride, but that's not in the cards yet.  And that's okay.  We can't expect something major to happen like a change in season just because the calendars that we make say that it's the first day of spring.  If we want to get the most out of our days, we can't spend time and energy wishing the days were different, because they aren't.  The warmer days will be here soon enough, but for now it's important that we just take what we get because there's absolutely no way we can change it.  And once we accept the days for what they are, our own peace of mind grows and our stress levels decrease, both rather significantly.  It's spring in name only right now, and the best we can do is wait for true spring to arrive, and to love the days we get until then, just as they are.