It was just about a year ago, mid-May, and I was walking out of the grocery store with a half-dozen rose bunch in my hand. I crossed paths with a woman I knew a little from church.
“Oh!” she said, looking at the flowers in my hand. “They’re beautiful. Are those birthday roses? Whose birthday is it?”
Because of course they were for someone else. Who buys herself flowers?
Well, me. I do.
I looked down at my lovely bouquet and back up at my friend, and I said, “They aren’t birthday roses. They’re mental health roses. They’re for me.”
She was surprised, and it took her a minute, but she walked away liking the idea of mental health flowers.
I still feel a little guilty sometimes. Spending money on something that doesn’t serve any practical purpose and will surely die flies in the face of everything I was taught and everything I sucked up by osmosis in my childhood. But ten bucks spent on grocery store flowers has the power to brighten my life for the few days they do last, and I’ve decided it’s worth it.
Don’t get flowers as often as you’d like? Don’t get flowers at all? Feel resentful and maybe, possibly, a little sorry for yourself? (I wouldn’t know anything about that, of course.)
You can fix this, all on your own.
Decide what you need and take care of it. Buy your own flowers. They smell just as sweet. And you can make sure you get the best color, too.
Flowers, candy, quiet time alone just to breathe, all are essential for survival in this crazy 21st century. Good for you!