(I) Don’t Bring Me Flowers

I left the office on Friday hoping to catch an early train home. Sadly, because of the usual mob of commuters, I missed it and had to wait around for the next one. Since I was very early, I had plenty of time to stand around and study the people that were to join me on the train, and to make some important self realizations.

At this time of year, the arrival of spring is not readily apparent in the City. Everything seems to be a neutral; gray skies, concrete sidewalks, travertine floors and building exteriors, black-clad New Yorkers, the skin palours of washed-out cubicle workers, grimy dirt, and melting snow; even the bowels of Grand Central are peculiar faded shades of beige, brown, and pea green. The only splashes of color are multi-hued scarves, hats, and raingear, and the bright blooms at the flower stalls, which are tucked in corners around the Terminal.

I was caught up in my own thoughts, when my attention was captured by a passer-by. I noticed that this lady was carrying a huge shopping bag of flowers. As she walked past, I saw glimpses of brightly-colored bouquets and batches of tulips and snapdragons. For one brief instant, the refrain from that '70s hit went through my mind and I was consumed by a wave of sadness tingued with a slight case of jealousy.

Then I got annoyed … at myself. When I first got my job in NYC, I would go to a bodega and pick up a bouquet for my desk every week. I can’t remember why I stopped. I suspect then, as now, it was because of the budget. I realized as I stood there in my mini-funk that I was being ridiculous. I pass the flower stall every single day and don’t stop. I asked myself a few pointed questions: Why am I not at least stopping to smell the flowers? Why am I denying myself a moment of beauty in an otherwise colorless day? No one else is going to buy me flowers, so what am I waiting for? So the budget is tight? Life is too darn short.

So I marched back up the stairs and bought myself a batch of bright candy pink tulips. I have to say, they were an immediate mood-lifter. I brought them home and placed them on a bureau where they are in my eye-line from most vantage points of my apartment. I enjoyed them all weekend. The various lights and shadows have illuminated the flowers in different ways, plus the tulips have continually changed the shape of the arrangement as they move.

I’m so grateful that I listened to my inner voice and went and got the flowers. It is so much better to be happy now, than to live in a colorless world and be buried in a lifetime of regrets and denial.

One simple bouquet $8
Glass jar of water $0
Important life lesson Priceless

Have you stopped and smelled the flowers today?