Flowers

My family has a number of holiday traditions. Not the normal ones like hiding elves around the house or eating black-eyed peas on New Year's.  At Christmas we have this old cheese gift box my dad got once, and whoever gets to it first wraps a gift in the cheese box.  It's always a thrill to be the giver of the box, and also to get it, and it leads to the requisite cheese-related cheesy jokes (it was just sitting there waiting, I couldn't help it!) I'm not entirely sure why, but it's fun.

I do not have a picture of a rose, so
these are lovely tropical flowers
from Cambodia. I do not know
what they're called, so I am going
 to nick-name them Lemon Drops
until someone who knows
better informs me.

For New Year's, we would get up and watch the Rose Parade and pick our favorite floats. One year we were in California over the holiday and we got to go walk around the floats after the parade. You know how some things are cool on TV and kind of lame up close?  The Rose Parade floats do not fall into that category. They are exquisite.  I recommend going to anyone. Unless you have hay fever.

The sheer number of textures and colors and shapes of the flora on one float is overwhelming. There are people who work year-round to design the floats, build the structures, and plan the floral layout. Then, teams of volunteers work around the clock for a few days making it happen, and voila. A parade is born.

And then an hour later, its over. The floats are on display for a few days, but the flowers won't last.  Oddly, this isn't depressing to me. I find it kind of fundamental, that the labor, the time, the money and yes, the flowers, are poured into an art piece that has an expiration date.  The point is not functionality. It is not efficiency. It is just beauty. (Okay, probably marketing too, but that isn't nearly as touching).

The Rose Parade has been held since 1888.  Before Christmas lights, there were roses.  So, obviously, I'm not the only one who feels the magic of nature combined with creativity to form something more special than any purely man made construct.

I think life is like that. We are made to achieve. To be creative. To do new things, push ourselves, grow. But anything that is just me-made is less than it could be if I go to the Creator and let him cover it in his flowers.

Oh Maker of irises, lemon drops, ferns, and yes, roses, this year is young. It only just started, and there is so much I want to do. But I do not want to do it alone or even on my own blueprints.  Direct my plans. Help me to grow and develop. Cover this year in your flowers.  All my love.