Happy gifts

I am a sucker for flowers.  I think that they are beautiful in a way that is so simple.  They are beautiful if someone is there to appreciate them or not.  They are beautiful if they are sitting in a field in the middle of nowhere, they are beautiful in a garden, and they are beautiful in a crack of a highway side lane where the seed happened to fall.  And it's simple reproducible formula (though nature does it better!):  seed + sun + water + food = flower.   I know scientifically flowers exist to attract insects/birds to spread pollen to make seeds to reproduce etc etc.  But it still feels like flowers exist just to make the world beautiful, just because.  When I'm there to see it, they feel like a gift from God to me.  I feel the same way about the ocean, each wave I caught when I used to surf, sunsets, cool cloud formations, sunrises, scented flowers, and beautiful scenery.

I will be honest, I haven't had a great couple days.  Bad days happen.  They're worse when they come in series and when you realize how blessed you are, but you still feel like you're sitting under your own personal storm cloud.  But those are the days when I go into my garden, stare at my flowers and think, gosh, how beautiful this is, and just for me.

Is that weird?  You should try it with whatever makes you happy -- keep a whole patio full of it!

Here are the happy gifts this week:

1) This is so great. My second dahlia plant has bloomed, a lovely peachy pink color.  I love it.

2) More mind-blowing succulent reproductive magic.  This time on a form of Kalanchoe I have.  How interesting that the Eccheveria grows new babies from the broken off base and the Kalenchoe produces new baby plants from the tip.

3) This is actually a birthday gift for me that we bought in Italy.  A ceramic hanging to be hung in my garden.  By an artist named Innocenti.  How Italian!  We have to figure out what type of elaborate contraption will be able to hold this heavy thing up very very securely (it was rather expensive and I love it to much to let it break).  But once we do, it will make a great garden addition.

Life is too short and full of beautiful things to feel bad for very long.  Here's to finding our happiness!