Walking down Nicollet Mall today I was surrounded by booth after booth of freshly picked vegetables and fruit. Thursday is Farmer's Market day. Sandwiched among the food laden tables were buckets of beautiful flowers. I couldn't resist and decided to buy a couple of the brilliant colored bouquets for two of my co-workers who have gone above and beyond the call of duty this week. After carefully selecting just the 'right' ones for these two fine people, I continued my walk down the street and across the park.

Here's what happens when you walk carrying flowers. People whose faces are usually blank as they move through their morning smile at you. Some say things like"Beautiful flowers!" Others nod and say with a wide grin "Good morning!" One random man carrying his morning coffee while dragging on a cigarette smiled while nodding toward the flowers and said "Have a great day!" I accepted his offer.  By the time I reached my office I was buoyant with all the positive energy and well wishes.

I thought about the times in our lives when we actually carry flowers: weddings, senior prom, an occasional procession of some kind. Sometimes family members will carry a flower to the graveside after a memorial or funeral service, quietly, reverently laying the flower on the grave of a loved one. There is something special about walking while carrying flowers.

I wonder what would happen if we imagined all the people we pass carrying flowers. What if, in our imagination,we saw that boss or colleague we find most difficult walking around with a spray of red roses? What if we saw the mail carrier, the one who fills our mailbox with bills and other unwanted correspondence, carrying sunflowers sticking out of their mailbag? What if the children lining up at the bus stop all carried a bouquet of garden posies to greet their bus driver, that person who has one of the most difficult jobs in the world? What if, we all imagined ourselves in the long, beautiful  procession of each day, carrying a glorious bunch of gladiolas?

It is a fantasy worth playing out, I think. It might be just the boost your day…and those you meet….need. So, now let us all walk out into the day like a beauty queen taking the ceremonial walk down the runway, head held high, smile flashing, our flowers tucked neatly in the crook of our arm. I can assure you. Heads will turn.

"People
from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the
whole time to have such things about us."  ~Iris Murdoch, A Fairly Honourable Defeat