The morning was cool and breezy as I stepped into the garden.  But before my foot ever reached the carpeted lawn I knew this was going to be a special day.  The delicate scent of a thousand dew covered roses mingled together like a heavenly science project and welcomed me with aromatic kisses.  The perfume was sweet and intoxicating and left me desiring more of this magical scent.  And with each step closer to Mother Natures perfume factory I was rewarded with unseen blessings.

        I spend perhaps thirty minutes walking among these spicy plants.  I pause before one and shut my eyes.  As I begin to drink in its fragrance I realized that I am enjoying a flower that has enthralled and fascinated mankind for all of human history.  My mind travels back in time to other roses I have known.  I remember as a twelve year old boy the sight of the wreaths of flowers that seemed to hold hands and cry around my father’s grave.  I can remember the single rose I placed in the hands of my mother when I graduated college and the proud tears that escaped her eyes.

        Weddings, birthdays, special days and funerals; we honor each of these solemn and joyous days with gifts of flowers.  First dates, prom nights and anniversaries, each an occasion we will never forget and I wonder if it is the scent of flowers that help us to remember.  Perhaps as we write the story of our lives we are using flowers as bookmarks.  They mark our place and help us to remember how important this day is in our story.  Flowers help us express our deepest feelings; happiness, sorrow, celebration and grief each becomes easier to share when accompanied with a flower.

        Today, I want to tell you that you are special and I give you this flower to say thanks for your part in my story.  My only regret is that you can not smell the sweet aroma that I remember and still lingers in my heart.  Pause and think for a moment.  Is there someone in your life that needs the gift of a flower?  Why not drive over and place you arm around them and tell them what they mean to you?  Pick up the telephone and tell them; write that note, do whatever it takes but tell them.  Maybe you need to say, I am sorry, perhaps Forgive me or just I love you; no matter what it is you need to say, do it and mark it with a flower so you don't forget.  Happiness is a choice; choose to give your flowers while they can still smell its fragrance.

Something to think about:

• Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting a few drops on yourself.

• The ultimate miracle of love is this—that love is given to us to give to one another.

• Good received blesses much; good imparted blesses more.

• Forgiveness is the fragrance that the flower leaves on the heel of the one who crushed it.

• We blossom under praise like flowers in sun and dew; we open, we reach, we grow.

• The man who raises roses in his garden also does a kindness to his neighbors.

• Kindness is like a rose, which though easily crushed and fragile, yet speaks a language of silent power.

• The kindness we resolve to show tomorrow cures no headache today.

Thankful for the flowers of my life
Rickey Moore