When you pick your own flowers...

Dear Beloved Reader,

Today I speak to the heart that has been waiting for that bouquet—the scent of the petals so intoxicating, their perfume strong enough to make even a hospital room smell like a wedding. Look closely and you will see the intricate veins in each petal, the delicate fragility of these small beauties. Receiving flowers is so much more than a fifteen-dollar bundle of pretty weeds. In many ways, the sharing of flowers captures the meaning of life itself.

Death brings life. How fragile the essence of life truly is—that the perfume of our lives can either fill a room with joy or leave behind a bitterness so sharp it seems to rot the bones.

Yet there is another meaning hidden in the flowers, one that is the soul of today’s reflection. Too often, we wait for the bouquet rather than gathering the flowers ourselves. Why do we wait to feel loved until someone finally says, “I love you”? Why do we wait to feel confident until we recognize a familiar face in the room?

And what happens when our hearts are broken?

Suddenly, the thought of flowers feels unbearable. Flower shops become places we avoid, as if beauty itself has betrayed us. What was once a symbol of life now feels like something reserved only for funerals—something meant to be laid upon us when we are six feet under.

But perhaps the tragedy is not the breaking of the heart.

Perhaps the tragedy is forgetting that we were always allowed to pick the flowers.

Pick your own flowers. Start living now, not later. If you are lonely, pick flowers. If you are happy, pick flowers. If you are broken, pick your flowers. When you are scared, pick them anyway. In every season there is a reason to stop waiting for someone else to give you permission to thrive.

I am not calling for hyper-independence. I am calling for a revolution—a call to action. A call to fight the spiritual dependence of needing a preacher to prophesy before you walk in your calling, a lover to love you before you feel loved, money in the bank before you allow yourself to be happy, or the approval of mankind before you feel accepted.

Too many people spend their lives trying to please everyone so they will be liked. They mute their personalities because they have been told they are “too much.” They become chameleons, blending into whatever environment surrounds them. And worst of all, they spend their lives waiting for flowers that will only arrive at their grave.

We wait to live until it is time to die.

But your life is your life. Walk with your head held high—you do not need permission for that. So often we are simply waiting for validation, like flowers waiting for rain in a drought.

Why do you not feel accomplished? Most of the time it is because we are waiting for someone else to say that we are. But look around you. You are alive. I would say that is a remarkable accomplishment. Somewhere, someone is lying in a hospital bed wishing they had the chance you have today.

“I don’t have the money.

I don’t have the freedom.

I don’t have the body.

I don’t have the house.

I don’t have the friends.

I don’t have the girl.

I don’t have the guy.

I don’t have the car.

I don’t have the energy.

I don’t have the mindset I want yet.”

Those things may all be true. But why can’t you make the most of where you are right now?

It costs nothing to go for a walk and breathe fresh air. It costs nothing to say hello to a stranger at the gym, the café, or the store. You never know where that small moment could lead. Open up the narrow walls of your world and see how much life is waiting for you.

Chances are, they feel the same way you do. One small act can break the narrative, disrupt the invisible matrix we all live in. It costs nothing to give a hug, send a message, or smile at someone. And when you smile at someone else, remember—you are smiling at yourself too.

You can live a full life. But we must ask ourselves: full of what?

Are we full of anger? Always looking over our shoulder because we believe everyone is out to get us? Do we let every word someone says define us, as if we are nothing more than an entry in a dictionary?

Then become your own word—because no one can define you better than you.

People will always try to become the main character in your story. But they are not. You are. And Yahweh has written a story with your name on it. Notice the key word: your story. Not Bob’s. Not Susan’s. Not Kenny’s.

Yours.

So break the narrative. Shatter the invisible walls that have confined your life. Stop and smell the roses. Look up at the stars. Take the risk. Book the flight. Say what has been sitting on your heart.

Look around you.

And live.

When life brings you to your knees, you can either stay there—or you can take a knee, center yourself, speak the truth, take a deep breath, and get back up.

One of the greatest lessons I have learned is this: you can do push-ups anywhere. Yes, that sounds random and strange, but stay with me for a moment.

The gym is not the only place where push-ups can happen. If we believe that, then our fitness is just as boxed in as our lives. You can do push-ups in a hospital just as well as in a gym. It is not about the environment. It is about deciding that the environment will not stop you.

Pick your own flowers.

Your environment should not determine whether you deserve them or not. You define that. You can walk into a room and own it—or you can let the room own you. You can let the waves of life drown you, or you can grab a surfboard and learn to ride them.

That was a lot, and as you know, dear reader, I feel like I could go on and on. But I will end here for now.

Be brave. Be courageous. Be dangerous.

Brave enough to continue on.

Courageous enough to let go.

And dangerous enough to live your life without restraint.

Do not wait for this thing or that thing before you do what you already know you need to do. Do not let anything define whether you are worthy in this life, because the Savior and King of this world has already defined you as worthy of His own life.

Do not put that truth to shame by allowing others, situations, or circumstances to determine your worth. You are already worthy.

With much love and adoration,

Elysa