My Favorite Flower

My thoughts today are residing on happy, quiet things. I am not entirely certain why that is--the Seahawks are playing in the Superbowl again today, and I am excited about that, but I am focused more on nature this morning. Perhaps it is because our computer freaked out the other day and we had to re-install Windows, and the background it defaulted to was the picture of the two daisies on a very blue background.

I suppose that spoils any surprise that might have come from this post, and so I may as well get it out there: my favorite flower is the daisy. Not the huge, colorful Gerbera daisies... just a plain, white, common daisy. Some women love getting roses or colorful bouquets. As much as I love getting any type of flower, I am more excited about getting a handful of delicate white daisies than I am about getting a bouquet of long-stemmed roses. I have sometimes wondered why this is, and thus I am writing a post about it.

These are my favorite daisies.

There are many different reasons that I am attracted to the daisy. My mother loves daisies, and I adore my mother. I think Mommy (yes, I still call my mother "Mommy", and so do the rest of my siblings--that is just the kind of person that she is) likes any type of daisy, but she had this fake tree that she would put on our porch that had little white daisy blossoms all over it. My logical brain thought it was ridiculous (as daisies most definitely do not grow on trees), but I loved that "plant" as much as my mother did. It was just... happy. The tiny white blossoms with delicate little petals seemed to calm whoever looked at them. I have found that it's true with any sort of wild daisy. There are not a lot of petals on a regular daisy. You may get two layers if you're lucky, each one in the second row perfectly lined up so that they peek through the "windows" of the first line, much like dancers do. All of those dainty petals seem to direct your attention to the ball of yellow that they grow out of, like a sunshine! Gerbera daisies have way too many petals, and they seem dwarfed by a dark, sunfloweresque center.

This is a bouquet of Gerbera daisies.

It's the plan white ones that make me smile. Even talking about those daisies makes me happy. 

There is a clip from the movie You've Got Mail that I think is great, and I will link it here to where I want it to start. You can stop it as soon as she's done with her happy little thought: http://youtu.be/pmNmFpJM3qQ?t=1m41s. Everything about how Meg Ryan is acting in that clip is perfect. The fact that she is feeling awful, but has a happy, serene smile as soon as she sees the daisies is exactly the reaction that I would have. Daisies are calming, gentle, and "friendly." When I was married, daisies were everywhere. They were centerpieces, the main part of my bouquet, and accents on my dress. I love how calm and... I don't know... pure they make me feel. I wanted to share that feeling with everyone on my wedding day. I think we tend to be too busy all of the time and worry about all sorts of different things. It is nice to have a dash of color every once in a while... but, hey, you can gently dye daisies any color you want by putting food coloring into the water!

I try to learn things from anywhere I can, and the daisy has taught me the most out of any other flower. It has taught me to be calm and gentle to others, even when the winds of life are blowing me around and make me feel like I can't hang on anymore. (I am certainly not perfect at that, but I am better than I was!) It has taught me that simplicity is beautiful. It has taught me that being delicate isn't being frail. It has taught me that growing with others makes you a better, stronger person. I love this flower.

What is your favorite flower and why? I would love to know!

Lela

Bonus: I realized, as I was reading this, that two of my favorite characters are named Daisy: the one from the Nintendo world, and the other from the Disney world. They're my favorite because of their spunk and sass... but maybe their names affected my subconscious.