Tag Archives: flowers

Reading and Roses

Second step towards Valentine’s Day on your own.  Explore things you love to do.  Expand the meaning of the day, to include some of the activities you enjoy most.  I love flowers and the way they brighten the environment, even at the many stalls throughout the city.  Particularly in winter, I notice them even more, as they burst out against the grey backdrop of the streets and sky.  Why not treat yourself to a bouquet on Valentine’s Day?  Don’t wait for someone else to give you roses!   Challenge yourself to look at things differently.

“Some people are always grumbling because roses have thorns.  I am thankful that thorns have roses.”  Alphonse Karr

Valentine's Day flowers

Roses, roses, roses

While roses give such pleasure, so do books!  Grab your favorite books on the topic of love and tuck into one, in celebration of the holiday. Enjoy a “refresh” on the subject of love. I keep some of my favorite books nearby at all times. A recent addition to my collection is “A Breviary of Psalms, Pictures & Poems”, written by my friend, Father Timothy Brown, S.J. Filled with beautiful reflections, it’s another inspirational and thought provoking book of his that illuminates new ways to understand love and life.  Here’s one of his selected poems:

Valentine's Day read

Reading and roses

The Early Morning 

The moon on the one hand, the dawn on the other:                                                                              The moon is my sister, the dawn is my brother.                                                                                      The moon on my left and the dawn on my right.                                                                                       My brother, good morning: my sister, good night.

Hilare Belloc

 Incorporate the notion that the world around us offers endless beauty everyday and it’s easy to find ways to celebrate love in many forms.  Not just through the people we love, but through the beauty of art, books, music, poetry, prayer, food, even nature itself.   Love encompasses all things.

A simply wonderful way to approach Valentine’s Day as it arrives as “A Table For One.”

Copyright 2017 Marion M. O’Grady

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