A Flower a Day...

My thoughtful Auntie Joyce sent me a virtual bouquet of flowers in a birthday card online. It is truly amazing what technology can do! I clicked on the single tulip and a plethora of colourful flowers bloomed right there in front of me. I immediately felt uplifted and special. Once the bouquet was complete, I was able to slide my mouse over each type of flower to get the meaning of each flower. Since I am new to the world of botany, I was surprised at what I found out. I thought to myself "do you mean to say that each of the 270,000 types of flowers has its own unique meaning? This is not something that I thought of until now. The only flower that I was certain of was the red rose; that represents passionate love. The only reason I know this is from my high school days when we would have rose-o-gram for Valentine's day. There were different colours to represent your feelings toward the recipient. It was a BIG deal if you received a red rose from someone. Upon further reading, I found that the language of flowers is sometimes called florigraphy, which was used in the Victorian-era as a means of communication in which flowers and floral arrangements were used to send coded messages to allow people to express feelings which otherwise could not be spoken. How sad that there was a time in history where a person couldn't verbally express how they felt. Gesh, I would certainly be in trouble. I found out that these meanings mean different things to different people. Nonetheless, flowers are infused with symbolism and meaning, whatever the meaning may be.

Here in Bulgaria, it is custom to bring flowers when it is your first visit to a person's home. It is also customary to bring these flowers in odd numbers. In Bulgaria, the only time one would send even number of flowers is for a funeral or in a time of sorrow.

Upon further research, I found out that in most cases each flower is surrounded by an illusive mysterious aura and magic mood which is passed to the recipient of the arrangement. This makes sense, since flowers are living. When I was reading through some of the meanings of the flowers I was manifesting my desire "to be" so many of these characteristics; patience, purity, courageous, respectful, loving, happiness, joyful, grace... and the list goes on. I would like to make a parallel to this when we talk about people. Like a beautiful bouquet sitting in your living room, when you surround yourself with people who have positive intentions, love, joy and happiness, you can't help but feel the contagion of positivity.

If interested, here is the link to my birthday card
http://www.jacquielawson.com/viewcard.asp?code=3033584445601&source=jl999

I am off to buy me a big bouquet of Angelica for inspiration! Until next time....

Yours,

Andie

Older=Wiser

This morning I woke up one year older. There were no fireworks going off, I didn't feel overwhelmingly excited about the day, I guess in one word I could describe my feeling as "peacefulness". In the greater scheme of life, being at peace is a wonderful place to be. Don't get me wrong, I still have made a big long list of "to do's" this week, but for the moment, I was satisfied to just "be". I needed to ask myself, "At what point did I switch from being the complete planner with ten things on the go, to just being?" Where did this woman come from? How did I get here? I am still attempting to answer these questions, but for the time being, I am satisfied with the fact that perhaps I am just getting wiser with age. I am able to sit back and really appreciate what I have, rather than dash out to do more, be more, give more. Over the years, I have learned a few key factors for healthy living. On the weight and exercise front; it is simple, energy in combined with energy out equals a balanced body. On a deeper more intellectual scale, I discovered that a sense of purpose is not something that you find; it's merely something that you are. As author, Dr. Wayne Dyer puts it; You create your thoughts, your thoughts create your intentions, and your intentions create your reality. If I read that quote when I was in my twenties, I would have thought, what a bunch of bananas. Now, that I have had life experiences, I know that we are in the driver's seat of the car of life. Each experience that I have had has made me who I am today, in the present. I am now able to step out of the time dimension and enter into the now. Which brings me to my next point. Time. This is where the wisdom comes in... There is never a time when your life is not "this moment" and I didn't get this until now. As a toddler, I wanted to be in pre-school where my big brother was, as a young child I couldn't wait to be a teen. Once in high school, I was anticipating being in University, and so forth. At 41, I finally get it; be where you are. Look around. Be aware of the space that allows everything to be. Listen to the sounds; don't judge them. Observe the rhythm of your breathing; feel the air flowing in and out, feel the energy inside your body. Allow everything to "be". Within and without. So, yes, I am another year older. Today marks the first day of my 41st year, but rather than making big goals for the year, I am only going to focus on today, this moment, right now... and I am confident that the rest of the year will fall into place.