A story about paying attention:
Years ago, when my much beloved mother-in- law, Maggie was alive, I would send her flowers for special occasions. At that time she lived in Colorado and we lived in California.
Maggie had been a Stanford Home Coming Queen and was a lady of much sophistication. She was artistic, funny, and had a huge diversity of friends from all political leanings. I always wanted to please her as she treated me like a fellow queen. Whenever I would order flowers for her, it was always something exotic like orchids or some other little delicacy. And at the end of the long distance phone conversation with the Colorado florist, I would always request; no carnations or daisies, please. In my mind they were so....common- not like Maggie.
When Maggie passed I had the opportunity to view her entire jewelry collection which was immense and eclectic, as her tastes ranged from the traditional to very contemporary. I saw many pieces that incorporated daisies. When I asked her best friend about it, she said that daises were Maggie's favorite flower. Damn! When we would visit her home I remembered seeing the ubiquitous daisy/ carnation combo and just chalked it up to...what? Obviously she bought them because she liked them. It was a real eye opener. It was me that didn't like daisies or carnations! I was so prejudiced that I couldn't see that she had an obvious preference in flowers (though I know she enjoyed the orchids too). After that I try to keep my eyes open more to what pleases someone else without the filter of my tastes -- and to give those "common", oft used flowers a second chance.
