This article is being reprinted with permission by the author, Mary Dee Freeman. If you like it, you may wish to read more by Mary. She publishes a newsletter entitled, "WOW-ZINE" at: http://www.mynewsletterbuilder.com/email/newsletter/1410292681.
The Daffodil Principle
Hi Everyone,
I was talking to a client the other day. She was frustrated because her business wasn’t growing as quickly as she wanted. I hear it a lot. Many people think that if things aren’t going their way, there’s something wrong with them.
It’s not their fault. It’s the way we live. Our society is one of instant gratification. We have drive thru everything; instant downloads on the internet and the list goes on. We are taught from birth that we should get whatever we want when we want it.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s great that we are so blessed in the United States. The negative side of such a successful society is if we don’t succeed the way we think we’re supposed to, we think there must be something wrong with us.
It’s just not true. That’s where the Daffodil Principle comes in. I don’t know where this story came from and I’ve edited for brevity. I hope the original author doesn’t mind as it’s one of my favorites. Hope you enjoy it as well.
Several times my daughter had telephoned to say, “Mother, you must come see the daffodils before they are over.” I promised, a little reluctantly, on her third call.
Next Tuesday dawned cold and raining. Still, I promised, so I drove there. When I finally walked into Carolyn’s house, I said, “Forget the daffodils, Carolyn! The road is invisible in the clouds and fog, and there is nothing in the world except you and these children that I want to see bad enough to drive another inch!”
My daughter smiled and said, “I was hoping you’d take me over to the garage to pick up my car. It’s just a few blocks. I’ll drive, I’m used to this.”
After several minutes in the car, I had to ask, “Where are we going? This isn’t the way to the garage.”
“We’re going to my garage the long way,” Carolyn smiled, “by way of the daffodils.”
“Carolyn,” I said sternly, “please turn around.”
“It’s alright, 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 church. On the far side of the church, there was a hand lettered sign that read, “Daffodil Garden”. We got out of the car and I took each child’s hand as I followed Carolyn down the path. Then, we turned a corner and I looked up and gasped… before me lay the most glorious sight.
It looked as if someone had taken a great vat of gold and poured it down over the mountain peaks and slopes. The flowers were planted in majestic, swirling patterns… great ribbons and swaths of deep orange, white, lemon yellow, salmon pink, saffron and butter yellow. Each different-colored variety was planted in a group so that it swirled and flowed like its own river with its own unique hue.
There were five acres of flowers!
“But who has done this?” I asked Carolyn.
“It’s just one woman,” Carolyn answered. “She lives on the property. That’s her home.” She pointed to a well-kept A-frame house that looked small and modest 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 simple, “50,000 bulbs”, it read. The second answer was, “one at a time, by one woman. Two hands, two feet and very little brain.” The third answer was, “Began in 1958.”
There it was, The Daffodil Principle. For me that 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 and beauty and joy to an obscure mountaintop.
This unknown woman had forever changed the world in which she lived just planting one bulb at a time, year after year. She had created something of indescribable magnificence, beauty and inspiration.
“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 worked at it ‘one bulb at a time’ through all those years. Just think of what I might have achieved!”
My daughter summed up the message of the day in her usual direct way. “Start tomorrow.”
The principle the 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 one baby-step at a time… and learning to love the doing, using the accumulation of time.
Ode’ to Cecil!
4 years ago
