Arrange flowers

“She taught us step by step how to go about making an arrangement and I thought I had paid attention well until she let us loose. Immediately, I was the slowest one in the group as I, somehow, turned my oasis (is that what it's called?) into a sculpting project. The teacher calmly told me that I needed to start over again. Horrifying, right? Definitely, the best part of flower arranging is picking out the flowers. I was the last to go, which was just fine because I take way too much time deciding. [...] By the end I was much less nervous of hurting the delicate little flowers and just went for it. Because I had all these flowers at my fingertips, I wasn't afraid to use whatever I darn well pleased.”

“You see, the flowers in this store-bought arrangement started to wilt. So, I started pulling out the dead pieces. And then, I had an idea…as much as I was proud of that little arrangement I bought my mom, I did think it would look so much better if it wasn’t so tight. So, I went in our garden and cut some rosemary, small branches, and pink roses. I completely rearranged all of the flowers in the basket, adding fresh cuts from our garden, and made it much more whimsical. I loved it. And even more importantly, my mom came inside and exclaimed, “This is so much prettier than it was before! Wow!”

“In the spring I decided to do something for me. I decided that on the 1st of every month, I would buy different types of flowers and try to arrange them with absolutely NO idea what I was doing. I wasn’t going to feel guilty about the price, because god knows I used to spend much more than that monthly on booze and eating out!! [...] But mentally? I’m worlds away from who I was last January. I look forward to the beginning of each month. I don’t feel like a poser doing something I find fun, even if my arrangements are obviously untrained novice creations.”