STOP WAITING....!!!

Several times Carolyn had telephoned to say, "Mother, you must come to see the daffodils before they are over."

She wanted to go, but it was a two-hour drive from Laguna to Lake Arrowhead  "I will come next Tuesday",  she promised a little reluctantly on her third call.

Next Tuesday dawned cold and rainy.  But still as she had promised, reluctantly she drove there.  When she finally walked into her house she was welcomed by the joyful sounds of happy children.  She delightedly hugged and greeted her grandchildren.

 
"Forget the daffodils, she said to 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!"

Carolyn 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!"  

Carolyn assured her. "But first we're going to see the daffodils.  It's just a few blocks," she said.   "I'll drive. I'm used to this." “You will never forgive yourself if you miss this experience."


After about twenty minutes, they turned onto a small gravel road and the mother saw a small church. On the far side of the church, she saw a hand lettered sign with an arrow that read, “Daffodil Garden."   They got out of the car, each took a child's hand, and she followed Carolyn down the path.  Then, as they turned a corner, she looked up and gasped.  Before her lay the most glorious sight.

It looked as though someone had taken a great vat of gold and poured it over the mountain 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 coloured 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?" she asked her daughter "Just one woman," Carolyn answered.  "She lives on the property.  That's her home."  And then pointed to a well-kept small A-frame house, 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 the mother, that moment was a life-changing experience.  She thought of this woman whom she had never met, who, almost fifty 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 a 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," the mother 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!"

Carolyn 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 only to 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.

Happiness is a journey, not a destination. So work like you don't need money. Love like you've never been hurt, and, Dance like no one's watching.

Wishing you a beautiful, daffodil day!

Don't be afraid that your life will end, be afraid that it will never begin.