The Daffodil Principle
Several times my daughter had telephoned to say,“Mother, you must come see the daffodils before they are over.” I wanted to go, but it was a two-hour drive from Laguna to Lake Arrowhead.“I will come next Tuesday,” I promised, a little reluctantly, on her third call.
Next Tuesday dawned cold and rainy. Still, I had promised, and so I drove there. When I finally walked into Carolyn’s house and hugged and greeted my grandchildren, I said, “Forget the daffodils, Carolyn! The road is invisible in the clouds and fog, and there is nothing in the world except you and these children that I want to see bad enough to drive another inch!”
My daughter smiled calmly and said, “We drive in this all the time, Mother.”
“Well, you won’t get me back on the road until it clears, and then I’m heading for home!” I assured her.
“I was hoping you’d take me over to the garage to pick up my car.”
“How far will we have to drive?”
“Just a few blocks,” Carolyn said. “I’ll drive. I’m used to this.”
After several minutes, I had to ask, “Where are we going? This isn’t the way to the garage!”
“We’re going to my garage the long way,” Carolyn smiled,“by way of the daffodils.”
“Carolyn,” I said sternly, “please turn around.”
“It’s all right, Mother, I promise. You will never forgive yourself if you miss this experience.”
After about twenty minutes, we turned onto a small gravel road and I saw a small church. On the far side of the church, I saw a hand-lettered sign that said, “Daffodil Garden.”
We got out of the car and each took a child’s hand, and I followed Carolyn down the path. Then, we turned a corner of the path, and I looked up and gasped. Before me lay the most glorious sight. It looked as though someone had taken a great vat of gold and poured it down over the mountain peak and slopes. The flowers were planted in majestic, swirling patterns—great ribbons and swaths of deep orange, white, lemon yellow, salmon pink, saffron, and butter yellow. Each different-colored variety was planted as a group so that it swirled and flowed like its own river with its own unique hue. There were five acres of flowers.
“But who has done this?” I asked Carolyn.
“It’s just one woman,” Carolyn answered. “She lives on the property. That’s her home.”
Carolyn pointed to a well kept A-frame house that looked small and modest in the midst of all that glory. We walked up to the house. On the patio, we saw a poster. “Answers to the Questions I Know You Are Asking” was the headline.
The first answer was a simple one. “50,000 bulbs,” it read. The second answer was, “One at a time, by one woman. Two hands, two feet, and very little brain.” The third answer was, “Began in 1958.”
There it was, The Daffodil Principle. For me, that moment was a life-changing experience.
I thought of this woman whom I had never met, who, more than forty years before, had begun—one bulb at a time—to bring her vision of beauty and joy to an obscure mountain top. Still, just planting one bulb at a time, year after year, had changed the world. This unknown woman had forever changed the world in which she lived. She had created something of ineffable (indescribable) magnificence, beauty, and inspiration.
The principle her daffodil garden taught is one of the greatest principles of celebration. That is, learning to move toward our goals and desires one step at a time—often just one baby—step at a time—and learning to love the doing, learning to use the accumulation of time. When we multiply tiny pieces of time with small increments of daily effort, we too will find we can accomplish magnificent things. We can change the world.
“It makes me sad in a way,” I admitted to Carolyn. “What might I have accomplished if I had thought of a wonderful goal thirty-five or forty years ago and had worked away at it “one bulb at a time” through all those years. Just think what I might have been able to achieve!”
My daughter summed up the message of the day in her usual direct way. “Start tomorrow,” she said.
She was right. It's so pointless to think of the lost hours of yesterdays. The way to make learning, a lesson of celebration instead of a cause for regret is only to ask, "How can I put this to use today?"
Use the Daffodil Principle. Stop waiting.....
Until your car or home is paid off
Until you get a new car or home
Until your kids leave the house
Until you go back to school
Until you finish school
Until you clean the house
Until you organize the garage
Until you clean off your desk
Until you lose 10 lbs.
Until you gain 10 lbs.
Until you get married
Until you get a divorce
Until you have kids
Until the kids go to school
Until you retire
Until summer
Until spring
Until winter
Until fall
Until you die...
There is no better time than right now to be happy.
Happiness is a journey, not a destination.
So work like you don't need money.
Love like you've never been hurt, and,
Dance like no one's watching.
Wishing you a beautiful, daffodil day!
Don't be afraid that your life will end, be afraid that it will never begin.
If you want to brighten someone's day, pass this on to someone special.
水仙花法則
女兒打來好幾次電話跟我說:“媽媽,水仙花凋落之前,你一定得來看看。”
我委實想去,只是從拉古納到箭頭湖得2個小時的路程。女兒第三次來電,我勉強答應她說:“我打算下星期二過去。”結(jié)果星期二一早就下起了雨,還有點涼 意。我已經(jīng)承諾過女兒,便驅(qū)車前往。我終于踏進了女兒卡羅琳的家門,在與外孫擁抱問好之際,我對女兒說道:“卡羅琳,忘掉水仙花吧,外面陰云密布,又下起 了霧,路上根本看不清楚。在這個世界上,除非為了想看看你和孩子,別的什么休想再讓我驅(qū)車半步。”
女兒淡然一笑道:“媽媽,我們可是經(jīng)常在這種天氣里開車。”
“好啦,除非天氣轉(zhuǎn)晴,否則你別想讓我開車上路。天一晴我就回家。”我鄭重其事地跟她說道。
“媽媽,我希望你能帶我去汽車修理場把我的車取回來。”
“離這有多遠?”
“穿過幾個街區(qū)就行了,”卡羅琳回答道,“我來開車,我習慣了。”
幾分鐘后,我忍不住問道:“我們這是去哪啊,這好像不是去汽車修理場的路。”
“我們將繞道去汽修場,”卡羅琳笑著說,“順便去看一看水仙花。”
“卡羅琳,”我厲聲說道,“請你調(diào)頭。”
“好啦,媽媽,我敢保證,你今天一旦錯過這個機會,會后悔終身的。”
20分鐘后,汽車駛?cè)胍华M窄的石子路面,我看到一座小教堂,在教堂的對面,有一個手寫的標牌:“水仙花園”。
下了汽車,我和女兒一人一手拽著孩子,由女兒帶路沿著這條狹窄的小道走著。轉(zhuǎn)一個彎后,我舉目望去,不由得一驚。眼前的景觀瑰麗無比,就好似有人把一 桶碎金撒滿了山頂和山坡。觀其水仙栽植,有的如絲帶數(shù)條,式樣絕好,美麗壯觀,搖曳生姿;有的像彩緞幾匹,其色潔白、深橙、淺黃、橙紅、橘黃、蔥黃,一應 俱全。由于顏色不同,品種各異的水仙分片種植,所以隨風搖擺,流動起來宛若花河,獨具色調(diào)。這里整整有5英畝水仙花。
“這些水仙都是誰種的?”我問卡羅琳。
“只是一個婦人。”卡羅琳答道,“她就住在這,看那是她的房子。”
卡羅琳指向一座A字構(gòu)架的屋子,在周圍燦爛輝煌景象的映襯之下,這座房子顯得矮小而又簡陋。
我們朝那間屋子走去,在門前的露臺上看到一張海報,標題是:我知道你們要問什么,這就是答案。
第一個答案比較簡單:“5萬莖。”第二個答案是:“一次栽一莖,一名婦人所植,用兩只手,兩條腿,還略動了點腦筋。”第三個答案是:“開始于1958年。”
這就是水仙定律,對我來說,那一刻的經(jīng)歷使我對于生活有了新的認識。
我想,這位素昧平生的婦人,早在40多年前就——一次一莖水仙——把自己對于美和快樂的理解與想象帶給這座無名的小山之巔。每次僅僅栽種一莖,年復一年,卻改變了世界。這位無名的婦人永遠改變了她所居住的世界。她開創(chuàng)的事業(yè)雄偉壯觀,美妙絕倫,而又鼓舞人心。
水仙花園給我們揭示偉大的禮贊法則之一。即每次只求一步,學著朝著目標努力——也許只是一小步——學著樂于這樣做,學會積累時間,利用日?,嵥榈臅r間每天努力一點,我們就會發(fā)現(xiàn)自己同樣能干成大事。我們也可以改變世界。
“這多少使我有點難過。”我向卡羅琳坦承,“如果35或者40年前,我也想到一個宏偉的計劃,并且這些年來‘一次一莖’地努力,想一想,我該會取得多大的成就啊。”
女兒以她慣常直率的方式總結(jié)今天所得的教益說:“那么就從明天開始吧。”