I started writing a blog about love yesterday. I wanted to finish it this morning so I could post today, but the message below popped up in my memories on FaceBook this morning, and it fits well with my current thoughts. I will continue to work on the other blog and will post soon. I am sure that love will be a continuing topic for me as it’s pretty important in life.
April 23, 2013.
Today.
I need to write about today.
While working in the design room of the flower shop, I did a lot of reflecting. I guess I’m feeling a great sense of loss, or maybe I should say a sense of great loss. Without getting into my personal life, I will share what I saw today. I was deeply touched on a couple of levels.
Working in a flower shop, I see funeral work being done almost on a daily basis. Even in our little town, death is no stranger. There are deliveries that need to be made to funeral homes with all the completed floral arrangements and gifts. This is all in a day’s work.
But today I saw the people. The people on the other side of the flowers. Sometimes we forget the purpose of our work. Today I saw love at its most purest moment and it nearly brought me to my knees. It definitely brought tears to my eyes and a great sadness to my heart.
A family came to the shop to see the finished casket spray for their wife and mother. It was a most beautiful spray. The last person to enter the room was an elderly man. Upon entering, he took a glance, covered his face, and began sobbing to the point where he left the room.
To most of us, these were just flowers, but to him they were so much more than that. These flowers are a symbol of his deepest love…and of his greatest loss. A lifetime of love with this one woman whom he married all those years ago. I am sure that in those 30 seconds, their 60+ years together flooded his mind and soul. I can only image the heartache he has been enduring since her passing.
As I reflect on this event, I realize a couple of things.
1) We should never take for granted the things we do. Almost everything is about someone else. And for a purpose. Bag those groceries for each customer as if that person was someone very special to you. Work on that car diligently and honestly as if your loved ones would be traveling in it. Doctor that person with compassion as if they were a family member. And design that casket spray with all your heart as if your loved one would be lying beneath it.
2) Marriage. If you find true love (and your best friend), marry him or her. Some of you will have the joy of being married for those precious 60+ years, and some of you may only make it to ten or twenty. And some of us will never have that opportunity. But if you should find that precious missing-piece-of-you, strive for 60+ years even if you marry late in life. Live each moment to the fullest. Fill your heart and your home with love.
Marry the love of your life. Young people…be choosy about who you give your heart to. Don’t just settle simply because you can’t see past today. Never marry a person if there is the slightest bit of doubt…and while you date, be observant of red flags and deal with them, or leave. Never, ever take red flags into a marriage.
3) And finally….LOVE. The deepest and most coveted of all emotions. It can send you to Saturn and back, but it can also cut through your heart like a knife. Protect love. Know the difference between true love and infatuation. If your love is the real deal then cherish it. Nurture it. Respect and honor it. Do everything that is good and in your power to keep it. You may never get another chance to live with the love of your life. And life is short.
Thank you for reading this message today. I hope that you have the same love in your life as that man had in his.
Coffee is on. I will joyfully share a cup with you on this rainy day.
Be grateful. ♥️
Andi
Photos: top: a garden rose from Mattea middle: beautiful Jamaican sunset, 2016 bottom: flowers from a bouquet I put together
Coffee with Andi 