Monday’s Flower Quote started this week from Marcus Tullius Cicero, “If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.” This quote reminded me of a Post-it note that I keep in my handbag that says ‘Concentrate on what you have.’ I find it to be a pretty simple statement but one that packs a powerful punch to knock me to my senses and be grateful for all that I have.

That punch reminds me during this frigid and snowy winter of how very fortunate I am to have a home with a roof over my head and heat to keep me warm. And that is just a few of the basics in life that I’m so privileged to have as I also have food, family and friends, let alone my garden by my kitchen sink and a library of more books then I’ll probably read in a lifetime.

With all that said, I do find it hard to concentrate on what I have when I would rather be outside but its just too cold and windy, and I feel a little sorry for myself. I find it takes work to concentrate on what I have, which sounds funny as I write that, but it does. It takes effort to be grateful. It takes awareness of my surroundings. It takes the miracle of nature at my kitchen sink with the Paper Whites I planted three weeks ago: watching each day as stems push from the exposed bulbs and then reach upward and straight as an arrow to create a bloom and then blossom with many single flowers lifting up my day and spirits. So, I think concentrating on what you have is very active statement. It is active by my own effort to create moments that remind me of what I have and something as simple as Narcissus blooming in my kitchen during the winter does just that.

Share with me what concentrating on what you have means to you and any of the flowers in your house that help you to see winter differently.

Flower at the top of the post: Narcissus

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