With Gratitude

The gift that has given, and given, and given again

These are for you. A heartfelt gift of gratitude to my lovely, faithful readers in this Thanksgiving week. Your support means the world and I’m simply honored that you continue to join me in these virtual pages. It’s better to have close ones to do life together with, isn’t it? To share the beauty, the broken, the heartache, and the hope. To inspire simplicity, to find the small ways, to do what we can with what we have, to live well. You are my close ones.

Now, those flowers up there? The ones that are loose, wild, a little misbehaved, and achingly beautiful? I have to tell you about them, and how things unplanned, unrelated, and seemingly undone can fall together into tiny miracles.

This bouquet is one of those.

Last Friday, at the end of a wonderful, fulfilling, and incredibly exhausting week, a text came through from my florist friend, “Come get some flowers! Thanksgiving gift!!” I stepped into her studio the next morning to find an abundance of blooms and greens, extras from a recent photo shoot and a wedding that had gone out the door that morning. I was immediately taken with the palette of late autumn: burgundy, rust, antique gold, dusty pink, deep fuchsia, lavendar, pale peach, and delicate white. Rolled in brown paper and tied with twine, they really did feel like a gift.

But it wasn’t until I was home, while cutting the stems and placing them in a temporary vase of water for a good drink, that I realized these flowers weren’t only for me, they were for you. Gather was scheduled for the next afternoon, and what better thing to do live with my Gather attendees than put together a centerpiece of fresh blooms for a Thanksgiving table? It was so fun. We chatted while I worked, as I showed the process from beginning to end - the container, the mechanics (what holds the flowers in place - chickenwire!), the pedestal (which I thrifted years ago and painted white somewhere along the way), and how and why I was doing what I was. With a touch of wild cedar and moss that Maggie Mae and I had foraged that morning, it became the low, drapey centerpiece that I’d envisioned.

But it wasn’t until the next morning, as I was drinking my tea while admiring the blooms that I realized these were also for the rest of you, too, for those who didn’t get to be there for Gather. And in that moment, the details of how I would capture a photograph of it for you came to me - Vermeeresque, dark and moody, with vivid color brought to life by a touch of highlights. The compelling thing about the creativity is, you never know how something will be in the end until you try. And when you do, somehow, in the flow of it all, guided by a light we cannot see, beauty becomes even more beautiful.

So here they are, loves, this wild bundle of blooms, from my friend, to me, and now to all of you, the gift that has given, and given, and given again.

To all my American readers, I’m wishing you a lovely holiday, and to all of you, the beginning of a holiday season that fills you with hope and peace. I’ll see you back here next week.

P.S. The final Gather of the year will be Sunday, December 17, at 3:00pm MST, and will be open to everyone! My holiday gift to you! Mark your calendars!