In the Golden Afternoon: 5 Things We Can Learn From the Flowers

A wealth of treasures can be found strolling through your local garden park this summer

On a sunny summer afternoon, I headed over to Legion Memorial Park in Everett, WA, to spend a little time enjoying the weather. Legion Park is a great place to go, because it sits on a hilltop overlooking the Puget Sound and Everett Marina. I could sit up there forever watching yachts and sailboats come and go until the sun disappears under the horizon. And normally, that's all I would have done there, until I made this amazing discovery...

In the far corner of the park, there's a hidden arboretum that extends further into the wooded hillside. It houses the most lovely array of flowers, trees, and wonderfully exotic plants that are stunning. You can wander the trails for hours, or stop to sit on any one of the several benches, and listen to the fountains as the breeze plays with the foliage.

"You can learn a lot of things from the flowers, for especially in the month of June, there's a wealth of happiness and romance all in the golden afternoon."

It was so peaceful and lovely, and as I strolled, I found that each flower had its own personality, its own story. And, though they do not talk (or sing) to us in a language we can speak, like in Walt Disney's Alice In Wonderland, the flowers do speak, and they have important things to say if you listen...

5 Things You Can Learn From the Flowers

1. Reach For The Sun. Though it may seem easier to sulk in the gloom of an overcast spirit, a flower thrives in sunlight. Find the sunlight in your life and reach out for it, and hold on tight. Just like a flower, there is sunlight inside of you as well.

2. Bloom Where You're Planted. A flower does not choose where it is planted, and perhaps you did not as well. But that is okay- you have the power to bloom, whatever your given circumstance is. Flowers can thrive in any multitude of places- a steep mountainside, a harsh dry plain, or even in the cracks of the sidewalk. And you can thrive just as many places.

3. Bend in the Breeze. Life is always sending in a breeze to shake things up- why be rigid when you can bend with it? Flexibility is something highly valued and seemingly hard to accomplish sometimes, but it is well worth your inner peace to practice bending in the breeze.

4. Proudly Share Your Petals. Each flower is beautiful because it is unique. If you are a stunning lily, but all you want is to be a rose, you are never going to be happy with who you are. Don't worry about being like the rose- you were meant to be an amazing lily, and though you may never have round pink petals or fanning leaves, that rose will never have your long, white petals or fetch freckles. Celebrate what makes you unique, and never let your petals wilt for fear of being different.

5. Forgive Those Who Tread On You. Through every beautiful path, flowers will be tread on. And though it may be painful to be wronged by someone else, acknowledge that it was never about you- you just happened to be on the path they were walking. It may be easy to hold onto that animosity and place blame on others for your unhappiness down the line, but I can assure you that it will never help you grow. Forgive, and grow.