Woke up this Saturday morning to the sound of rain. Like poring howling rain with clouds so dark that even though it’s morning and the sun light is normally trickling in through the curtains, my room was quite dark. Living in the desert I won’t complain for we can always use the rain and it’s practically sunny all year long. So I stumbled out of my room and down to the kitchen to start my morning routine. You know, take your vitamins, mix up your apple cider vinegar breakfast cocktail, clean up dishes that might remain from the night before and pour yourself a cup of coffee kinda stuff.
As I sit in a quiet house (my husband is at work and we have not been blessed with children) I start reflecting on the prior week and how it was certainly a tough one. Between the exponential chaos that stemmed from work, coupled with the loss of my good friend, I was struggling to do anything but sit at my dining room table. As I gazed around my house thinking that I needed to pick up this or dust off that I looked over at the bouquet of roses that my husband picked up for me for Valentine’s Day. They were starting to wilt. For an instant I thought the flowers sure looked like how I feel. Wilting. Not ready to be thrown out but definitely not as beautiful and perky as they were when they came home. That’s when I noticed the little square packet of plant food sitting next to it. You know the ones that come with flowers from your local flower shop.
I reached across the table and picked up the flower packet and even though I know what the directions say, because I have seen them many times before, I still read the directions. The directions told me to cut the stems under water, refill the vase with solution, and rearrange the flowers. I decided to do just that. I was going to take the time to tend to my flowers in hopes that maybe they would perk back up.
I filled my sink with cool water and began dismantling the flowers…being careful to get the stems underwater quickly. I mixed up the solution and readied the vase for the flowers to return. Then, one by one, I carefully cut the stems underwater and began arranging them back into the vase. As I placed the last flower into the arrangement and affixed the bow back into the vase I realized that I suddenly had a different attitude. Not only did my flowers look much better but I felt much better too.
Sometimes, when the world is dark and gloomy, and you are feeling down, all you need to is to focus on a simple task to make yourself feel better. Today, I cut my flowers, and I feel a lot better because of it. Simple stuff. Find peace in the simple stuff.
~ Memoirs of a Strong Woman ~ 