by Paul Big Bear
Dear Friends,
Flowers, we give the gal we love a corsage for the dance, a bouquet of pretty flowers that say we are courtin’, when it gets serious we step up to roses. Then comes that special night, maybe over dinner, and “surprise” a bouquet of beautiful flowers as you get down on one knee and with a diamond ring in a fancy box you take her hand and say “will you marry me?” Yes flowers are very prominent in our lives.
The next step is planning the wedding; where shall we be married, where should we hold the reception, then the menu, and what shall we have? Hors d’oeuvres, soup salad, entre, we’ll need a meat dish, chicken or fish, vegetarian and sides (more vegetables) potato or pasta, corn or peas, perhaps stewed tomatoes. Broccoli – cauliflower – Brussels sprouts “who are you inviting Euell Gibbons?” Dessert, pastries, ice cream, parfait, “OK” and then we need to go and order a cake, how many tiers, chocolate cake, white, marble, pound cake and what icing?
Just when you think you don’t have to dip into your retirement money… you guessed it, FLOWERS! Boutonnieres for groom and best man, corsages for the Brides Maids, oh and flowers for the flower girl and the ring bearer. We should get flowers for our mothers, flowers for all the tables and the bouquet for the bride to throw away. Yes flowers fill our lives, Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day, birthdays, birth of children, Christmas, Easter and many more. New job, promotion, graduate, buy a home and you must have a flower garden or two, visit someone who is ill and you need flowers.
Think of all the flowers in our lives, go for a spring drive and you will hear “Oh the trees are blooming and look at all the flowers.” Don’t think for a minute that when you leave this world there won’t be flowers. I find it a bit sad and dismaying that we wait so late in life to “Stop and smell the flowers.” To actually take time to sit on the porch in the evening and rock together and smell the beautiful scents, enjoy the many colors, and even the smell of the fresh cut lawn as you sip an evening drink and gaze into your wife’s eyes, hold her hand and thank God for prettiest flower that just gets more beautiful every day.