The Crazy, Secret Anti-Depressant Waiting For You

My very important job today is to bully you into regularly enriching your life with something you’ve probably not thought twice about.

I’m talking about flowers, and just stay with me here.

The reason you may think you don’t care is because flowers have a branding problem. They’ve been miscast, dumbed down. We tend to think of flowers as something to buy on special occasions. Or something we need to know about to enjoy. We have to be a gardener, a romantic, a girl.

We’ve also been peddled the notion that flowers come in bouquets from stores.

So: Wrong, wrong, and, also, wrong.

Friends, will you entertain a new flowers premise? Flowers are everywhere, and they are silent joy bombs. They are rackets of color and beauty. They are downright gaudy in their art and perfection. And they are available to anyone willing to pay attention.

So join me, will you? Take ten minutes today. Grab clippers or scissors and a little plate or cutting board on which you can place your treasures.

Now, just walk out your door, through your front yard, back yard, in your neighborhood, or a park down the road.

And then? Just use your eyes to see. Maybe take a moment to notice that you have eyes, and register how it feels for your eyes to meet the sight of flowers, just right out there in the world, ridiculously just putting on a show for you.

Then bend down or up and clip anything that pleases your eyes – flowers, flowering weeds, grasses, leaves, branches. While you do it, take in the color, shape, the way it feels to look at them.

This is what I clipped today. Just six things. Couldn’t tell you what most of them are called. Just that they are tiny works of art.

Now go back to your kitchen and forget about vases. Open your cabinets and pick out simple little bowls or glasses that your little flowers or buds or leaves will look pretty in.

Then fill them with just enough water to reach the end of your stems, and float your treasures in them, arranging them in a way that pleases your eye, till you think: My God, what beauty. What a simple, perfect thing to rest my eyes on as I go through my life in this house. 

“Ahhh, it’s a good day,” says Dave, my husband, whenever he walks into the house and sees that I’ve taken the time to scatter our counters and bathrooms and bedrooms with nature’s miraculous art.

To me, flowers are meditation with benefits. When I do them, it’s like a prayer. It’s like a bow to my life and the world’s beauty by taking the time to pay attention and say: Yes. Thank you.

All you need is clippers, your eyes, and the world. All there for the taking.

P. S. Please inspire us with a photo of your flowers in the comments section below. And please forward this post onto all your friends needing joy.

Next up: Introducing the Impatient Chef: Me and How You Can Be One, Too