Exploding Roses

"Living is not enough, ... one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower."
Hans Christian Anderson

While searching for a quote today and came upon this one, I started to laugh and had a memory smile moment. When I was in Arizona/Colorado and worked as a manager for a wholesale flower outlet we had fresh flowers all over our offices. I especially enjoyed Valentines day because we had exotic flowers that grow in Hawaii and other more tropical climates. And no, not everyone wanted red roses.

The flower "season" went from Thanksgiving straight through to Mother's Day. Tensions especially in the design department was extreme on certain days, which was predictable. They had to prepare hundreds of specialty arrangements, buyers had to make sure they have enough of all the ingredients, and God-forbid we ran out of anything. During Valentines our coolers could have anywhere from one to two million dollars worth of roses in them. If the temperature was not just exact, you lost your inventory.

Needless to say, everybody--and I do mean everybody--got involved around Christmas and Valentines Day prepping, or design. Some of us were lucky enough to do Sunday deliveries [smile] But one thing we all agreed on, we didn't grow tired of the flowers.

Our motto: Nobody ever died from an exploding flower! You simply pick up the petals and make potpourri

Sometimes we need to see our situations as flowers. The most that could happen is the petals fall off, its not tragic, pick up the pieces and make something else of it.

Smile--let the sunshine in
Freedom--don't block what could be an exceptional experience
Flowers--they add to your environment