I am so lucky to regularly receive bouquets of flowers from Brenda’s garden in Wallingford.  Her flowers grace my yoga studio! Brenda’s garden starts producing early in the year and her flowers, especially the dahlias and hydrangeas, keep blooming into late fall! She has a talent in flower arranging and the bouquets are so attractive!

It is no secret that Brenda has a green thumb. And what is amazing is how she shares her flowers! In this blog, I want to show you some of the beautiful bouquets she has given me over the years. I also want to talk about Brenda’s Flower Ministry and the benefits of being the recipient of flowers!

Usually, when I think of “ministry”, my mind often goes to a person who leads a group of people of faith and serves their community with great selflessness. Street ministers also come to mind.  Street ministers spend time with people experiencing homelessness. The goal of street ministry is to make friends, and to help these friends move toward housing, treatment, employment, and/or re-connection with family. Street ministers bring food, water, and other supplies based on needs.  It’s not an easy job, but it’s definitely a two-way street and a win-win situation. When a street minister helps and befriends an un-housed person, they feel a great deal of satisfaction in having helped someone in need. My now-deceased friend and fellow yogi, Vester Marshal, often spoke of his work as Street Minister as described above.

Brenda’s Flower Ministry is also a labor of love and a satisfying endeavor.  She spends much time in her garden doing what gardeners do: tilling, planting, watering, weeding, staking, mulching, pruning, deadheading, and enjoying the beauty of flowers! In the process of gardening, Flower Minister Brenda gets to breathe in fresh air, release stress, move her body as she stretches and strengthens, attract bees, butterflies, and hummingbird pollinators, and experience a deep sense of hope as flowers bloom year after year. By way of gardening, Brenda helps decrease air pollution and soil erosion. Plus, she gets her healthy dose of Vitamin D.

And since all ministry has a win-win aspect, being a Flower Minister is no exception. Brenda loves to share her flowers. I wish you could see her enter the yoga studio with her arms holding her large basket, which contains a water-and-flower-filled vase. She is a petite woman and the basket almost overwhelms her. Oh, but she is strong! She places the basket down and pulls out one of her gorgeous vases and voila, the flower fragrance is released into the studio.

The scent of Brenda’s flowers is never overwhelming, but the scent is enough to root both of us into deep relaxation. Flowers are a symbol of unity. Did you know that every state has a state flower? And pride is often associated with the state flower. I think that is so cool! Washington’s state flower is the coast rhododendron. And since I’m originally from Indiana, I might as well mention that the Indiana state flower is the peony …and who doesn’t love peonies?

Mostly, I want to reiterate how much of a win-win situation it is for Brenda to share her flowers through her Flower Ministry and for someone like me to be on the receiving end. The colors, textures, and scents are soothing. Simply put, flowers give us such joy and beauty. And by sharing her flowers, Brenda receives the social benefits of flower gardening.

Thank you, Brenda, for the many beautiful flowers you have shared with me throughout the years! Your generosity is definitely worthy of a blog post and I am forever filled with gratitude.