A BOUQUET OF "FLOWERS"

The Bad News: My mom fell last Friday.

The Good News: She’s OK.

My mom is in her late 70’s, has a lot of pain in her knees, and an arthritic hip that gives her trouble. She “missed” a curb, and went right down…quick.

I got a call around dinnertime from my oldest son, “Hey Mom, everything’s

all right, but…”

NEVER a good way for a phone call to start…

Seems that Mom hit some kind of steel bench on her way down, went to the hospital in an ambulance, had to have 2 cuts stitched up on her chin, and was currently getting x-rays to make sure nothing was broken (nothing was!).

Praise God – my mom is none the worse for wear!

She has a rather large bandage on her chin (the hospital one was small and unassuming – my dad’s replacement one 24 hours later is “battlefield-worthy”!!), a few scrapes and scratches, and a HUGE bruise on her hip – which she is rather proud of, I might add!

So, what’s all this have to do with flowers?!

I think it’s a good practice to “give someone flowers” every chance you get. Maybe not a “literal” bouquet, but something that tells them how you feel about them.

This little “accident” of my mom’s really showed me, yet again, how much I really appreciate her – for all the things she does for me, and for all the things she is to me. So I spent yesterday afternoon with her, brought her a small gift, and a card. And then I just told her how much I loved and appreciated her.

After all, she’s been my best friend my whole life!

When “The Boys” were in elementary school, we used to do a fun thing on Teacher Appreciation Day. We would make 26 tissue-paper flowers and attach them to green pipe cleaners. Then we would make 26 tags with a word describing their teachers’ best qualities and traits, starting with each letter of the alphabet, and then attach one tag to each stem. We’d get an inexpensive vase, fashion a bouquet, and give it to them with a card. It was always a “hit” – (by the way, X usually stood for “X-cellent!”).

We all have people in our lives who deserve to be recognized, appreciated, told how much they’re loved…we all have people who need to know how we feel about them.

The “gift of flowers” can be ANYTHING – the possibilities are endless!

It can be as simple as a card, an email, a phone call, a cup of coffee, a hug…

The important thing is acknowledging what a particular person means to you, and letting them KNOW how you feel.

Is there someone in your life who deserves a “bouquet?!”

BLOG = “Blessedly Leaning On God!”