Stories & Articles

Hi Reader,

I love the early morning walks I take most days around our neighborhood. We have no sidewalks, but there is never much traffic. I can walk my normal route and never meet a car.

One of the places on my walk I enjoy is the corner of an unknown neighbor’s yard. It has an inviting stone bench on which sits a statue of a cherub. I call her Monica because she looks like a Monica. She lets me sit next to her now and then when I need to re-tie the laces on my walking shoes.

The other day on my walk, I noticed a glass jar of daisies sitting next to Monica, alongside a sheet of paper inside an acetate page cover that read “Free Daisies.”

The flowers were delicately beautiful and symmetrical. They each reminded me of the sun. They were a bit of botanical sunshine offered to me and anyone else who walked by and took time to walk the ten feet from the street to read the “Free Daisies” sign next to Monica.

What a kind and generous thing for this homeowner to do in offering to give away flowers from their yard. They could have kept every one of them to make bountiful bouquets of these sunshine flowers to brighten the interior of their home.

An offer I couldn’t refuse

Grateful for the free daisies offer, I took three of them. I could have taken more, but I wanted to leave the rest for others to enjoy. I took the three daisies home and put them in a tall, narrow vase to sit on my office desk.

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I then thought of what I could do in return to thank the homeowner for the flowers. Maybe I could bring these people a floral arrangement of my own. Or I could wait until next spring and drop off some of the abundant daffodils that pop up around our house.

Or maybe I could take my lawn mower over to their house and mow their lawn. It most certainly needs a haircut.

A question arises

Then a question occurred to me: why do I feel the need to reciprocate? Why am I spending more time thinking about what I can do to return the favor than enjoying the favor itself? I know some people will think they don’t deserve good things to come their way. I’m not like that. God wants good things for all of us.

My guess is that my own pride is peeking around the corner on this one. I want to be thought of as a generous and thoughtful person, so if I don’t do something thoughtful like my free daisies neighbors have done, what will that say about me?

But in trying to match what my neighbors have done, it takes the spotlight off their act of generosity and shines it on me. Do you ever think like this, or am I the only one?

Here’s what I will do instead

A better idea came to me. I will write a simple thank-you note and place it inside the acetate page cover with the Free Daisies sign. And that’s it, no more. (I checked and was surprised to see that I’ve done four podcast episodes that mention the power of a thank-you note (pisodes 140, 116, 095, and 087).

I’ll spend the rest of my time and energy enjoying the vase of a few daisies sitting on my desk. Marveling how God could create such a thing of delicate beauty that can light up a person’s yard at dusk, whose petals remain intact during a downpour of rain we recently had in our neighborhood.

I think about the example of the homeowner’s generosity that yields nothing in return for them, but how their kindness reflects the character and image of God.

As I look at the flowers on my desk, next to my computer screen, I will think of the simple pleasures of life. I will think of the brevity of life itself, for these daisies will fade in a few days, and the petals will fall off, and then I will have to bury what’s left of them in our garbage can.

I will think about how, unlike many other flowers that give off a fragrant aroma, these daisies do not. They are different. And unlike other flowers whose petals are singular and independent, these petals are soft to the touch and interconnected, supporting each other and standing as one unit to highlight the bright gold center.

We are all a little like daisies

These daisies are different. And so are all of us. And so are all of us to be enjoyed in our differences because that is how God created us.

Yes, this is what I will do. I will take time to appreciate the people who made these flowers possible, and God who created them. I will reflect on how the beauty of the daisies reflects the kindness, creativity, and generosity of God in providing all of us with this simple pleasure. I will appreciate how different the daisy is from other flowers, reminding me to appreciate differences in people not like me.

Yes, this is what I will do. Because this is one of the times when it’s better to receive than to give.

John Certalic

P.s If you missed last week’s blog post, Saved From The Dumpster,click here. Podcast episode no. 224 drops next Wednesday.