Gratitude and Flowers

Having returned recently from Hawaii where the flowers were in full display, I have been thinking about the role flowers have played in my life.

Easter will soon be upon us and the lily has come to represent the resurrection of Christ. Many theories abound as to how the lily arrived at this high symbolic status but maybe Christ’s statement found in Luke 12:27 sums it up best. “Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” My two grandmothers were always presented a potted lily at church on Easter. For many of us flowers have great meaning aside from their natural beauty.

When I was a boy growing up in the Yakima Valley, winter was not my favorite season. I longed for warmer weather, snow melting and the first signs of spring. My mother loved flowers and planted crocus and tulips under her bedroom window. The crocus were the first to pop up even through the last vestiges of snow and ice clearly giving hope of spring and summer on the horizon.

A little later her lilac bush would begin to bloom with their fragrant purple flowers. To this day the smell of a lilac takes me back to wonderful memories of my childhood. Her early blooming peonies along our dormant garden would usually be ready to cut for our annual family trip to the cemetery on Memorial Day.

Later in the year her roses would begin to bloom. Her favorite was an orange rose that I transplanted to my yard in Gresham after she passed away. After 60 years plus of her tender care and of me running over it with the lawn mower I think I finally managed to kill it. I inherited her appreciation of flowers but not her green thumb.

I will be forever grateful to my mother for the legacy of appreciation she managed to somehow bestow on me even though I’m sure I didn’t feel it at the time. My regret is that I kept my gratitude to myself. I don’t think I ever adequately expressed to her verbally how much she gave me. It’s now too late for that.

My other regret and gift came from my 6^th grade teacher Mrs. Herschel. She somehow managed to be a catalyst for me, sparking a love of flowers and nature. I think it all started with a class project to make a terrarium. I was fascinated with it and how it grew green stuff and created its own rain. She encouraged me to explore my environment including birds. I was forever changed but I moved on with my life never forgetting Mrs. Herschel. It never occurred to me until after she had long passed to personally thank her.

I have finally realized that my greatest gift to my mother and Mrs. Herschel would have been to soulfully express my gratitude to them. Expressing gratitude is so easy to do and we can never fully know how much difference it can make in the day or life of the recipient. Life lesson: never procrastinate expressing gratitude to those around us, even strangers in line at Safeway when purchasing your Easter lily.