Flower Friends

While walking this morning, I passed a flower garden and got happy just looking at it. It seemed the flowers were screaming "HappyHappy" to me as I walked by. They beckon me to look at and remember the abundance that's all around me. They stand tall, bending in the wind, sometimes opening their faces to the sun, sometimes only coming out at night. They live short lives, but when they're here, they are unabashed in full glory, screaming bounty and beauty like nothing else.

Their colors are magic. I can't merely look at a flower from far away. I get my face right up next to them. I've always liked flowers, of course, but many years ago, I started to be
entranced by them. How do they do those colors? The perfect fading into perfect permutations of shades and hues. If you look at the petals, they are just about perfectly matched...the lines are equidistant, the spots uniform in how far up the petal they go, their overall pattern, how they line up in comparison to each other. Perfect. Ever look really closely at one... those little hairs on the flowers that hold the pollen..sometimes so small that at first I sometimes miss them. But they're there. And when I look at the flowers closely, I always find more color within color, pattern within pattern. They are truly miraculous.

Flowers, of course, do lots for us besides just be pretty. Lots of them taste really wonderful and are great in salads and on cakes. Many of them provide wonderful smellies for our delights. Long, long ago, I got introduced to Flower Essence remedies and got hooked. The first one to "discover" them that I know of was Edward Bach, who noticed that he felt different emotions around different flowers. So he distilled their essences by floating them in water (in very special ways) and started sharing them with people as healing tools. I still consider Rescue Remedy an essential in my home, both in the drop form and the cream. Whenever anyone has trauma of any kind, it's one of the first things I use. I remember I was cooking on one of those flattop stoves. I had no idea that the pan I put on my palm had been on the high heat burner. I heard the skin pop and sizzle as I felt the burn begin. My whole palm was red. I immediately put on ice, then slathered the cream on, put on gunks of aloe, wrapped in a bandage, took the oral Rescue Remedy at intervals until the next day. After 24 hours, I still had no blisters!! Not one. After two days of this treatement, I thought it safe to stop. Within 20 minutes of taking off the bandage, a huge full palm blister started to form. So I reslathered and it went away. I've used this stuff to relax colic-y babies, calm women in labor, and help out of control kids. Who wudda thunk?

So, yes, they have healing properties that they offer in love that we humans have learned to harness and use as allies. But I think their magic lies elsewhere also. How can anyone not feel joyous just looking, really looking, at a flower? I'm thinking they come here to spew joy over the planet. They sure do that for me. I think that's their primary job: to remind us of the joy that is available at every moment. That there's beauty right here right now in front of us, whether in numbers or alone. That the universe is a perfect place, with that perfection expressed in every form of life. They gift us by reminding us what's important.

I mean...how do they DO that??????


Images:

Dalia-from here

Lily from here

Flowering tree from here

Rose from here
Iris from here

This post was featured in the "Live the Power Unlimited Carnival" hosted by the lovely and loving Karen Lynch.