Growing up, my mother was a gardener. I have vivid memories of her every spring, in the dirt, growing lettuce, squash, tomatoes, cucumbers…you name it.
There’s nothing like the taste of a salad, freshly washed, from your own backyard.
When I was in third grade, my favorite teacher, Miss Sykes read to us, “Miss Rumphius.”
It is a lovely children’s book about a lady who travels all over, works in a library, and settles down in a cottage by the sea. She spreads love and joy to others by scattering lupine seeds all over her town. She made the world a better place by growing flowers and planting beauty.
Thus, my love for flowers was born. (And reading!)
When I was twelve, my mother bought me some packets of wildflowers. I planted them by a small portion of a white picket fence outside of our red-tinned roof farmhouse. And they grew.
They were beautiful. It was everything I ever dreamed of.
I like to say my mother is the vegetable gardener, but I am the flower gardener.
Every spring, I go to the Amish greenhouses and buy flowers. I love to spend a breezy warm day with my hands in the soil, potting the bright purple, yellow, pink, and you-name-it colors. A couple of years ago, my mother-in-law even put me in charge of completing her flower pots.
When the flowers grow even bigger and the sun shines on them, it warms my heart.
My son was born in May of 2013, and we brought him home from the hospital, the bright yellow and red tulips I had planted the previous fall, welcomed us home.
When my daughter was born this last April, those same red and yellow tulips smiled at us again.
Flowers hold a big, happy spot in my heart.
So, no wonder I love to see them in my classroom, as well.
I put up this gem of a bulletin board this last week, and the flowers smiling at me make my heart happy.
Go check it out and using our flowers, spread beauty in your classroom today.
Conclusion
Miss Rumphius spreads love and joy to others by sowing flowers as an effort to make the world a more beautiful place. What will you do?
