There are few things I adore more than the strong, sweet fragrance of lilies.  Recently my husband and I attended an engagement party for one of his cousins and they had huge arrangements of flowers everywhere.  I remember thinking they were lovely.  On the way out my aunt by marriage encouraged me to take some home.  I was going to refuse until she said they were just going to go in the trash!  I then gladly accepted and asked my husband to get one as well.  I wanted to bring it to our babysitter hoping she’d enjoy them, but I think her allergies may extend to flowers.  Heaven knows the woman is already a saint for braving our house with her cat allergies.  So we wound up with two arrangements which looked even more enormous in our own house.  I woke up the next morning and the heady scent of beautiful lilies greet me as I made my way down the stairs.  Even my car smelled heavenly with just a few dropped petals from the night before.  My little one noticed it, too and we decided to leave them.  All weekend long we were wreathed in the rich scent of Stargazers and it was pure bliss.  They must have been delivered fresh just before the party because they remained upright and beautiful for days.  When Monday rolled around I realized I still needed to get flowers for my little one’s class.  This was her turn to provide snacks and fresh flowers for the week.  Then I realized we had lots of perfectly beautiful blooms already and so I set about removing them from their green floral foam and put some in a vase to bring to school.  I still had some to keep and, to my surprise and delight, when I came to pick her up, I noticed the flowers were everywhere!  They were lining the windowsills and graced just about every available surface in her large classroom.  The American botanist Luther Burbank once said:

“Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine for the soul.”

That’s exactly how I feel … flowers are indeed sunshine for the soul.