I don't know if this is 'taboo' or not but I wanted to share this story that I recieved from a friend this morning. Marie

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Several times my daughter had telephoned to say, "Mother, you must come to see the daffodils before they are gone."

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 and it was cold and rainy. Still, I had promised, and reluctantly I drove there. When I finally walked into Carolyn's house I was welcomed by the joyful sounds of happy children. I delightedly hugged and

greeted my grandchildren.

"Forget the daffodils, Carolyn! The road is not visible with all the fog, and there is nothing in the world except you and these children that I want to see badly 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?"

"Oh...just a few blocks," Carolyn said. "But I'll drive. I'm used to the fog."

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 with an arrow that read, "Daffodil Garden."

We got out of the car, each took a child's hand, and I followed Carolyn down the path. Then, as we turned a corner, I looked up, and I gasped.

Before me lay the most glorious sight. It looked as if someone had taken a great vat of gold and poured it over the mountain peak and its surrounding slopes. The flowers were planted in majestic, swirling patterns, great ribbons and swaths of deep orange, creamy white, lemon yellow, salmon pink, saffron and butter yellow. Each different-colored variety was planted in large groups so that it swirled and flowed like its own river with its own unique hue.

I soon learned that there were five acres of flowers growing here.

"Who did this?" I asked Carolyn.

"Just one woman," Carolyn answered. "She lives on the property, and that's her home."

Carolyn pointed to a well kept A-frame house, small and

modestly sitting 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" read the headline.

The first answer was a simple one. "50,000 bulbs"

The second answer was, "One at a time, by one woman with two hands, two feet, and one brain."

The third answer was, "I began my daffodil garden in 1958."

For me, that moment was a life-changing experience. I thought of this woman whom I had never met, who, more than forty years ago, began, one bulb at a time, to bring her vision of beauty and joy to an obscure mountaintop.


Planting one bulb at a time, year after year, this unknown woman had forever changed the world in which she lived. One day at a time, she had created something of extraordinary 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 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 will find we can accomplish magnificent things, and we will find that we, too, 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 to only 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.