Every now and again, we all need to be reminded that we ARE good enough. Sometimes we get hammered down by the brutal reality of life and it seems that our inner feelings start to lag. We ARE good enough. In fact, we are beyond good enough. We are perfect. That perfection may be different with each of us but we are perfect in our own ways.
With everything that has been happening on the Bayou over the past year, my confidence was beginning to take a beating. Stress from caring for ill family members and for ill and aging pets just about took its toll. I was beginning to doubt my own self-worth. Trust me when I say that is a hard thing to handle. My remedy was to work myself into a frenzy with home renovations and yard work. Then, that too, started to take a toll on this old body. Something had to give. While I could not take a break from the care-giving responsibilities, there had to be some easier way of stress relief other than my tried and true method of hard work. It took the idea of a very dear friend to "plant" a bit of happiness.
One day, this sweet friend mentioned that we should buy ourselves flowers. While it was nice to receive flowers from others occasionally, buying them for ourselves could reconfirm our confidence. I do not buy flowers so, instead, I picked. I picked a bouquet of gardenias and stuck them in a vase. Well, that was done so why did I not feel better? After doing a few chores, I walked back into the living room where the bouquet sat and immediately noticed how nice the room smelled. That was nice. Later, I returned to the room and noticed that the sun beaming through the window was highlighting the blooms. That was nice. Still later as I sat editing photographs, the flowers, once again, caught my attention and I thought of Tina, my sweet friend. Yep, THAT was nice!
Those three things lifted my spirits even without much effort on my part. While I did not buy my flowers, I had followed Tina's advice and had some just for me. I was worth it! The effect was pretty special so, today, I went out and picked another handful of gardenias. If one bouquet lifted the spirits to any extent, perhaps I needed to repeat the process. I think Tina is on to something here, folks. Doing one small thing just for ourselves can make all the difference in the world. It is important to take care of ourselves not only physically but also emotionally. Tina, thanks for the advice! A vase of flowers each week can bring a lot of smiles.
For all I know, others may not stop in their tracks to inspect the little things on a hiking trail or in the garden. Maybe it is just me. Maybe I find too many things interesting. Maybe I have found enough peace in my life that other folks' drama is not to my liking. Whatever the case, I have such a natural curiosity about the happenings around me that most things require noticing. Just today while in the garden, a small feather suddenly drifted down from the treetops. That feather demanded a good ten minutes of my time for no other reason than to admire its beauty. The feather was recognized as being from one of the red-belly woodpeckers that frequent the area. A pair nested in the nearby dead pine but the nest was raided by a rat snake before the little ones fledged. Now, they are eyeing the black gum tree in hopes that their next brood will survive. As I flipped the feather between my fingers, I thought of the terror that the parent birds must have felt knowing that there was not much they could do to fend off the four foot long snake. But life goes on and they are, once again, pondering having a family. My thoughts then drifted to how much I appreciate the woodpeckers that inhabit the woods and yard. They have done their part in ridding the area of many insects especially those that bore into the trees. Ahh, yes. I put the feather back in place and continued with the clearing of the garden.
There is a lot of time to think while pulling out old tomato plants and it occurred to me that folks just do not get outside enough. Perhaps if they did, the world would be a lot nicer. While out in nature pondering all of the beauty it has to offer, it is hard to condemn others and hard to think you are all important. In nature, you are no more important than the woodpecker who lost the aforementioned feather. In nature, your opinions are just that...opinions and no one gives a flip about them. (In reality, that is the way it is anywhere. No one really changes because you think your opinion should rule. Nope...doesn't happen.) Critters don't have opinions and surely don't expect others to bow down to them. They just accept what life gives them, don't pretend to be better than anyone else and sure don't get miffed about any of it. That is the way it is here on the Bayou. That is the way it should be everywhere. Folks, to put it nicely, get up off your...umm...sofa and go outside. Observe what is around you. Examine things. Ponder things. And, for goodness sakes, stop thinking the world revolves around you and you alone. Mother Nature could teach you a thing or two. It would do you the world of good.
