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The
Daffodil Principle
- Author unknown
Several times my daughter had
telephoned to say, "Mother, you must come to see the daffodils before they
are over." I
wanted to go, but it was a two-hour drive from Laguna to Lake Arrowhead.
"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 reluctantly
I drove there. When I finally walked
into Carolyn's house I was welcomed by the
joyful sounds of happy children. I delightedly hugged and greeted my
grandchildren.
"Forget the daffodils, Carolyn! The road is invisible in these clouds and
fog, and there is nothing in the
world except you and these children that I want to
see badly enough to drive another inch!"
My daughter smiled calmly and said, "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.
"But first we're going to see the daffodils. It's just a few blocks,"
Carolyn said. "I'll drive.
I'm used to this. It's all right, Mother, I promise. You will never forgive
yourself if you miss this experience."
After about twenty minutes, we turned onto a small gravel road and I saw a small
church. On the far side of the church, I saw a hand lettered sign with an
arrow that read, "Daffodil
Garden." We got out of the car, each took a child's hand,
and I followed Carolyn down the path. Then, as we turned a corner, I looked
up and gasped. Before me lay the most glorious sight. It looked as though
someone had taken a great vat of gold and poured it over the
mountain peak and its surrounding slopes. The flowers were planted in majestic,
swirling patterns, great ribbons and swaths of deep orange, creamy white,
lemon yellow, salmon pink, and saffron and butter yellow. Each different colored
variety was planted in large groups so that it swirled and flowed like its own
river with its own unique hue. There were five acres of flowers.
"Who did this?" I asked Carolyn. "Just one woman,"
Carolyn answered. "She lives on the property. That's her home."
Carolyn pointed to a well-kept A-frame house, small and modestly sitting in the
midst of all that glory. We walked up
to the house.
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 one brain." The third answer was,
"Began in 1958."
For me, that moment was a life-changing experience. I thought of this woman whom
I had never met, who, more than forty years before, had begun, one bulb at a
time, to bring her vision of beauty and joy to
an obscure mountaintop. Planting one bulb at a time, year after year, this
unknown woman had forever
changed the world in which she lived. One day at a time, she had created
something of extraordinary
magnificence, beauty, and inspiration. The principle her daffodil garden taught
is one
of
the greatest principles of celebration.
That is, learning to move toward our goals and desires one step at a time--often
just one baby-step at time--and 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.
"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 or forty
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 daughter summed up the message of the day in her usual direct way.
"Start tomorrow," she said.
She was right. It's so pointless to think of the lost hours of yesterdays. The
way to make learning a lesson
of celebration instead of a cause for regret is to only ask, "How can I put
this to use today?"
Use the Daffodil Principle. Stop waiting.....
Until your car or home is paid off
Until you get a new car or home
Until your kids leave the house
Until you go back to school
Until you finish school
Until you clean the house
Until you organize the garage
Until you clean off your desk
Until you lose 10 lbs.
Until you gain 10 lbs.
Until you get married
Until you get a divorce
Until you have kids
Until the kids go to school
Until you retire
Until summer
Until spring
Until winter
Until fall
Until you die...
There is no better time than right now to be happy. I call this philosophy the Daffodil Principle and have made
it a priority to take time every day to "smell the daffodils" --
today, not tomorrow. There is never a better time to experience life than
this very moment.