The Daffodil Principle

Several times my daughter had telephoned to say, "Mother, you must come and see the daffodils before they are over." I wanted to go, but it was a two-hour drive from Laguna to Lake Arrowhead. Going and coming took most of a day - and I honestly did not have a free day until the following week.

"I will come next Tuesday," I promised, a little reluctantly, on her third call. Next Tuesday dawned cold and rainy. Still, I had promised, and so I drove the length of Route 91, continued on I-215, and finally turned onto Route 18 and began to drive up the mountain highway. The tops of the mountains were sheathed in clouds, and I had gone only a few miles when the road was completely covered with a wet, gray blanket of fog. I slowed to a crawl, my heart pounding. The road becomes narrow and winding toward the top of the mountain.

As I executed the hazardous turns at a snail's pace, I was praying to reach the turnoff at Blue Jay that would signify I had arrived. When I finally walked into Carolyn's house and hugged and greeted my grandchildren I said, "Forget the daffodils, Carolyn! The road is invisible in the clouds and fog, and there is nothing in the world except you and these darling children that I want to see bad enough to drive another inch!"

My daughter smiled calmly, "We drive in this all the time, Mother."
"Well, you won't get me back on the road until it clears - and then I'm heading for home!" I assured her.
"I was hoping you'd take me over to the garage to pick up my car. The mechanic just called, and they've finished repairing the engine," she answered.
"How far will we have to drive?" I asked cautiously.
"Just a few blocks,"Carolyn said cheerfully.
So we buckled up the children and went out to my car. "I'll drive," Carolyn offered. "I'm used to this." We got into the car, and she began driving.
In a few minutes I was aware that we were back on the Rim-of-the-World Road heading over the top of the mountain. "Where are we going?" I exclaimed, distressed to be back on the mountain road in the fog. "This isn't the way to the garage!"
"We're going to my garage the long way," Carolyn smiled, "by way of the daffodils."
"Carolyn, I said sternly, trying to sound as if I was still the mother and in charge of the situation, "please turn around. There is nothing in the world that I want to see enough to drive on this road in this weather."
"It's all right, Mother," She replied with a knowing grin. "I know what I'm doing. I promise, you will never forgive yourself if you miss this experience."
And so my sweet, darling daughter who had never given me a minute of difficulty in her whole life was suddenly in charge - and she was kidnapping me! I couldn't believe it. Like it or not, I was on the way to see some ridiculous daffodils - driving through the thick, gray silence of the mist-wrapped mountaintop at what I thought was risk to life and limb.
I muttered all the way. After about twenty minutes we turned onto a small gravel road that branched down into an oak-filled hollow on the side of the mountain. The fog had lifted a little, but the sky was lowering, gray and heavy with clouds.

We parked in a small parking lot adjoining a little stone church. From our vantage point at the top of the mountain we could see beyond us, in the mist, the crests of the San Bernardino range like the dark, humped backs of a herd of elephants. Far below us the fog-shrouded valleys, hills, and flat lands stretched away to the desert.

On the far side of the church I saw a pine-needle-covered path, with towering evergreens and manzanita bushes and an inconspicuous, lettered sign "Daffodil Garden."

We each took a child's hand, and I followed Carolyn down the path as it wound through the trees. The mountain sloped away from the side of the path in irregular dips, folds, and valleys, like a deeply creased skirt.
Live oaks, mountain laurel, shrubs, and bushes clustered in the folds, and in the gray, drizzling air, the green foliage looked dark and monochromatic. I shivered. Then we turned a corner of the path, and I looked up and gasped. Before me lay the most glorious sight, unexpectedly and completely splendid. It looked as though someone had taken a great vat of gold and poured it down over the mountain peak and slopes where it had run into every crevice and over every rise. Even in the mist-filled air, the mountainside was radiant, clothed in massive drifts and waterfalls of daffodils. The flowers were planted in majestic, swirling patterns, great ribbons and swaths of deep orange, white, lemon yellow, salmon pink, saffron, and butter yellow.

Each different-colored variety (I learned later that there were more than thirty-five varieties of daffodils in the vast display) was planted as a group so that it swirled and flowed like its own river with its own unique hue.
In the center of this incredible and dazzling display of gold, a great cascade of purple grape hyacinth flowed down like a waterfall of blossoms framed in its own rock-lined basin, weaving through the brilliant daffodils. A charming path wound throughout the garden. There were several resting stations, paved with stone and furnished with Victorian wooden benches and great tubs of coral and carmine tulips. As though this were not magnificent enough, Mother Nature had to add her own grace note - above the daffodils, a bevy of western bluebirds flitted and darted, flashing their brilliance. These charming little birds are the color of sapphires with breasts of magenta red. As they dance in the air, their colors are truly like jewels above the blowing, glowing daffodils. The effect was spectacular.

It did not matter that the sun was not shining. The brilliance of the daffodils was like the glow of the brightest sunlit day. Words, wonderful as they are, simply cannot describe the incredible beauty of that flower-bedecked mountain top.

Five acres of flowers! (This too I discovered later when some of my questions were answered.) "But who has done this?" I asked Carolyn. I was overflowing with gratitude that she brought me - even against my will. This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
"Who?" I asked again, almost speechless with wonder, "And how, and why, and when?"
"It's just one woman," Carolyn answered. "She lives on the property. That's her home." Carolyn pointed to a well-kept A-frame house that looked small and modest in the midst of all that glory.
We walked up to the house, my mind buzzing with questions. On the patio we saw a poster. "Answers to the Questions I Know You Are Asking" was the headline. The first answer was a simple one. "50,000 bulbs," it read. The second answer was, "One at a time, by one woman, two hands, two feet, and very little brain." The third answer was, "Began in 1958."
There it was. The Daffodil Principle.
For me that moment was a life-changing experience. I thought of this woman whom I had never met, who, more than thirty-five years before, had begun - one bulb at a time - to bring her vision of beauty and joy to an obscure mountain top. One bulb at a time.

There was no other way to do it. One bulb at a time. No shortcuts - simply loving the slow process of planting. Loving the work as it unfolded.
Loving an achievement that grew so slowly and that bloomed for only three weeks of each year. Still, just planting one bulb at a time, year after year, had changed the world.

This unknown woman had forever changed the world in which she lived. She had created something of ineffable magnificence, beauty, and inspiration.
The principle her daffodil garden taught is one of the greatest principle of celebration: learning to move toward our goals and desires one step at a time - often just one baby-step at a time - learning to love the doing, learning to use the accumulation of time.

When we multiply tiny pieces of time with small increments of daily effort, we too will find we can accomplish magnificent things. We can change the world.
"Carolyn," I said that morning on the top of the mountain as we left the haven of daffodils, our minds and hearts still bathed and bemused by the splendors we had seen, "it's as though that remarkable woman has needle-pointed the earth! Decorated it. Just think of it, she planted every single bulb for more than thirty years. One bulb at a time! And that's the only way this garden could be created. Every individual bulb had to be planted. There was no way of short-circuiting that process. Five acres of blooms. That magnificent cascade of hyacinth! All, just one bulb at a time."

The thought of it filled my mind. I was suddenly overwhelmed with the implications of what I had seen. "It makes me sad in a way," I admitted to Carolyn. "What might I have accomplished if I had thought of a wonderful goal thirty-five years ago and had worked away at it 'one bulb at a time' through all those years. Just think what I might have been able to achieve!"
My wise daughter put the car into gear and summed up the message of the day in her direct way. "Start tomorrow," she said with the same knowing smile she had worn for most of the morning. Oh, profound wisdom!
It is pointless to think of the lost hours of yesterdays. The way to make learning a lesson a celebration instead of a cause for regret is to only ask, "How can I put this to use tomorrow?"

Jaroldeen Asplund Edwards

Difficulties...a blessing?

"I am grateful for all of my problems. After each one was overcome, I became stronger and more able to meet those that were still to come. I grew in all my difficulties."

James Cash Penney

I don't often think of being grateful for problems or obstacles that come my way yet when I look back over my life I have truly grown in the hard times. When I'm on a roll and things are going well I always enjoy the ride but personal growth isn't my focus. It's the difficulties that make help me learn what works for me and what doesn't. It's the obstacles that make me climb, jump or find a way around to the other side. I really liked this quote from JC Penney. I think next time I run into problems I'll remember to be grateful!!

You are Brilliant

Here's a "random" email I received yesterday ... blessings powerful sisters!
Gina

I was just getting ready to walk out the door when something (or someone) tapped me on the shoulder and told me to email you.

I know it sounds crazy, but then again who am I question

the creator of the universe when he's moving in my life....

Anyways, the message that I felt called to share is simple...

"You are more powerful than you realize, and it's time for you to Wake Up to your Unlimited Brilliance because your playing small doesn't help Anyone, ... Anymore!"

Now if you've known me for any time now, you'd know that I very rarely email "Faith Based Messages" but since I'm playing the same game you are, I feel like it's time to "up the anti."

And if for any reason, you're offended by hearing about thing like "Faith", "God", or even "Jesus" then I'd suggest you unsubscribe to my emails because you'll probably get offended at some point.

But if you're reading this email and feel a "gentle nudge" to Step Up the Faith in your life, then stay tuned, because I feel like the best is yet to come!

Peace N Chicken Grease,

Gabe Strom

Prayer

Help me, O God
To listen to what it is that makes my heart glad
And to follow where it leads.
May joy, not guilt,
Your voice, not the voices of others,
Your will, not my willfulness,
Be the guides that lead me to my vocation.
Help me to unearth the passions of my heart
That lay buried in my youth.
And help me to go over that ground again and again
Until I can hold in my hands,
Hold and treasure,
Your calling on my life.

Clean Slate!?

"You have a clean slate every day you wake up. You have a chance every single morning to make that change and be the person you want to be. You just have to decide to do it. Decide today's the day. Say it; This is going to be my day."
Brendon Burchard

Do what you must do when you must do it!

Why do some people succeed in life while others fail?  You know the answer.  For the most part, folks fail because they did not do what they should have done back when they needed to do it.  They may also not be doing what they should be doing right now.

See, we all know the road to success.  Do what you must do when you must do it.   Not what you want to do.  Not when you get around to it.  Do what you must do when you must do it and the world is yours.
For some people it may mean adopting then keeping to a healthy diet from this moment.  For others it could mean doing whatever it takes right now to protect and nurture a marriage.  It could mean taking immediate and necessary steps to rid oneself of an addiction.  For many it means finding a job, finding a second job or starting a business—today!

This is all really very simple.  Do what you need to do when you need to do it.  Unfortunately, however, this simple but true formula leaves us utterly baffled by a perplexing puzzle.  If the road to success is so well marked, why do so many of us fail at so many of the things we consider truly important?
It takes another question to best illustrate ancient Jewish wisdom’s explanation for why so many of us fail at doing precisely what we know so well we ought to do.

Read this verse:

I call heaven and earth today to bear witness for you

 that I have placed before you  life and death,

 blessing and curse; and you shall choose life…
(Deuteronomy 30:19)

Here’s the question:  If life and death are the choices before us, who in his right mind would choose death?  What sane individual would choose curse over blessing?  Why should God need to sagely recommend that we choose life and blessing?  Who would do otherwise?

In reality, we face these choices many times each day.   Frequently the wrong path is the more appealing one.

God has put us in a world with not only physical gravity but also spiritual gravity.  Yes, it takes far more effort to climb up the stairs than down.  It takes far more effort to lift a weight than it takes to drop it.  It takes far more fuel for an airplane to attain cruising altitude after takeoff than it takes for the same aircraft to descend back to earth prior to landing.

Similarly, it is far harder to keep to a diet than it is to let oneself go.  It is far harder to stick to a project that needs doing than to abandon it for an evening’s entertainment.  It is harder to keep a marriage going than to walk away and it is harder to do one’s work when it needs to be done than it is to make excuses.
Yes, most of us know what we ought to do.  The problem is that God built a system of spiritual gravity that resists our every attempt to improve ourselves and our lives.  We should be happy about this for the same reason that weightlifters and athletes are happy that gravity exists.  Without it, everyone would be able to bench-press four hundred pounds and run a four minute mile, but these bogus accomplishments would achieve nothing.  In His kindness, God gives us opportunities to confront spiritual and moral challenges allowing us to grow and thrive.

Knowing the secret to success is far different from traveling that path. Rarely do the divergent paths of life or death confront us head on. Instead, we make choices during countless, seemingly unimportant, daily moments. Being aware that small actions lead to a critical finish line makes it easier to steadily move in the right direction. Choose life!

From Rabbi Daniel Lapin see www.rabbidaniellapin.com