Category: Flowers

A Written Word: We Will Forever Hold Her

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“Bloom,” Crafted by Cricket P.

This elegant poppies postcard was handmade by my Love Notes pal, Cricket. She designed it for “Beautiful Blooms,” the latest Global heART Swap, but kindly sent one to me in remembrance of Lori. The tiny black dots in the “green painted vases” are poppy seeds  from Cricket’s garden. In a few weeks, we will plant them–in Lori’s honor–just outside my home office window. They will bloom in the spring.

The intimate notes Cricket sent to Lori and me during her struggle and the one she included with “Bloom” are among those I will forever cherish. I will reserve the most intimate details of her notes for my own eyes, but it’s fitting to close with some of the words from her “Blooms” note:

Thank you for including all of us in this journey–for making Lori alive in our world. That we can share in the love and the grief of virtual strangers is a phenomenal thing. It gives hope in/to a troubled world and should be celebrated. Lori touched us all and we’ll forever hold her.

The Sunflower Challenge

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“Sunflower Week” ends with a challenge. After reading The Sunflower Myth blog post, Ralshella, one of my former students, challenged me to rewrite the story.

Challenge accepted!

Of course, I can’t let Shelibelle off the hook, so I’m challenging her to pick up her pen and rewrite the story.

And I’m challenging you, my blog friends, to rewrite the story too.

Create a myth that explains the origin of the sunflower. You can revise or work against the Ancient Greek myth of Clytie related in the Sunflower Myth post. Or you can create an entirely new myth.

Since this is a creative work, you are pretty much free to express as you wish. There are three rules:

  1. Refrain from using profanity or sexually suggestive themes (My kiddo often reads my blog posts).
  2. Avoid the woman victim-villain-abused characterizations we typically find in such stories.
  3. Present your own original work.

I will post my own sunflower story next week. If you have a blog, come back here a week from today and post a link to your myth in the comments of that post. If you don’t have a blog, but would still like to participate, post your story in the comments. 🌻🌻🌻

I’m looking forward to your stories!

Shine on!

Gifts for Today

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“Hummingbird and Sunflower,” photo by Larry Keller. Click image to view in Flickr.

There is a long narrow table that spans the large window in my home office, made by my hubby, of course. This is where I sit in the early morning, as the sun rises, to spend time with God.  As I study and meditate, I witness nature awakening, and I enjoy the brief encounters with birds, butterflies, and bumblebees that apparently love the zinnias growing just outside the window.

We see many different types of birds in our neighborhood, but I rarely see hummingbirds. I’ve seen them only twice in the six years we’ve lived here, and both times were at my window.

My second visit with a hummingbird was this morning, as I was meditating over Psalm 27. I had just read about the psalmist’s desire “to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple” (Psalm 27:4) and was praying the same for myself when the bird dropped by. How apropos! This was no coincidence. It was a subtle affirmation of the beauty of the holiness of the Most High and affirmation of His presence. A gift for today.

Note about today’s image: The photo was captured by Larry Keller who has an amazing Flickr feed filled with birds, deer, and other aspects of nature. Since there were still two more posts to complete “Sunflower Week,” I wanted an image for today that spoke to sunflowers and my early morning visitor. Larry graciously allowed use of his photo for today’s post. There are so many beautiful messages in nature, and I’m grateful for the many photographers who expertly capture what we miss or can’t experience for ourselves. Thank you, Larry, for your art and for your heart. Your photo is another gift for today!

Wrapped in Love and Sunflowers

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At the beginning of the year, after being cancer-free for 13 years, my sister Lori, heard the dreaded news–the cancer had returned. Initially, I shared this with just two or three close friends, soliciting their prayers. Out of respect for Lori’s privacy, I hadn’t talked about it much until I spilled to my penfriend Christine B, whose response prompted me to share Lori’s story with a group of my penfriends. They have been more than kind and supportive of me, and I knew they would embrace my sister and let her know that there are people all over the world who are rooting for her, sending her good thoughts, and praying.

Some of them went even further and sent supportive cheer mail my way as well–including three sunflower cards painted just for me!

“Sisters Dancing” by Trang K

Trang watercolored two flowers dancing–a sunflower and a purple tulip–Lori’s favorite flower in her favorite color. Her written note expresses sweetly, as only Trang can:

May you always dance to the sweetness of life in all its glory and fill your heart with everlasting joy and love.

“Time for Watercolor” by Christine B.

With her busy summer schedule, Christine B took the time to watercolor a new cheerful sunflower for my wall.

“A Note of Peace and Love” by Connie F.

Connie’s sunflower brightened a gloomy day. She slipped a beautiful bookmark (to be shared later) and a quote into the envelope with her sunflower:

It’s all about finding the calm in the chaos.  –Donna Karan

Knowing who God is makes horrific trials bearable. Lori is a bit more challenged this time around, but her faith is sure. Sometimes, it seems that worry is all I can do, but from her, I’m learning more and more not to worry. Her path isn’t easy, but through faith and fervent prayer, I can be a calming presence in the chaos of the journey just for her.

To my penfriends–Lori has received your beautiful expressions of love, hope, courage, grace, peace, and faith. We are incredibly moved by your sacred act of giving. Thank you, Christine, Trang, Lisa, Paige, Debra, Jennifer, Lori-Anne, Louise, Arielle, Sheila L, Connie, Suzette, Jacki, Gina, Andrea, Fran, Litsa, and Cricket. You have wrapped our hearts in love and have served as tangible evidence of God.

Hugs to you…

An Envelope Full of Sunflowers: Snail Mail Quick Tip

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You have probably figured out by now that I receive a lot of cheerful sunflower mail, so much that I’m pretty sure I can start a blog just for sunflowers. I can’t let my second “Sunflower Week” pass without showing off the beautiful envelope full of sunflowers my Love Notes pal Lori-Anne C sent a few months ago.

Some contents from Lori-Anne’s envelope full of sunflowers

In addition to a stunning hand painted sunflower postcard, Lori-Anne enclosed a couple of sunflower tags (one for me to color), a paper sticker, and a painted wood sunflower magnet.

Note the gorgeous sunflower painted on the edge of the envelope.

Sunflower painted on envelope by Lori-Anne C

And of course, the stunning sunflower:

Live-Laugh-Love Sunflower by Lori-Anne C

Lori-Anne captured my heart–a sunflower with my little sister’s mantra. Absolutely perfect! I was headed to class when I opened the package, and my heart simply overflowed with gratitude.

The envelope full of sunflowers provides an opportunity to share another snail mail quick tip. This is slightly more challenging than the tip I offered some time ago, but it’s still pretty easy.

Tip: Send a themed envelope related to an individual’s interests. The options are endless–butterflies, foxes, roses, rocks, fairies, music, hearts, bears, plants, and so on.

Choose a family member or friend. Think about that person’s interests and fill an envelope with items related to one interest–stickers, note cards, magnets, quotes, postcards. Anything you think they’d like. If you insert just a few flat items, you’ll need only one postage stamp.

What I love about the themed envelope is that you can pack a lot of love with few words. So if you have little time to write or if long missives are not your thing, place a few “themed” items into an envelope, write a one-phrase note [“thinking of you” or “love you”] and send it on its way.

Trust me. You’ll make someone’s day.