The Friendliest Flowers

Daisies have always been my favorite flowers.  They partner in my memory with hot sun, water-scented wind off the lake, fragile butterflies, and time: unstructured, countless hours to scuff sand with bare feet, hunt for snails, and contemplate marshmallow clouds drifting through the sky’s blue sea.  They’re happy, friendly flowers.

Many years ago, I chose daisies for my wedding flower because they symbolized my childhood at the lake, the place where I cultivated hope and freedom. The bridesmaids’ bouquets, and flowers on the cake table, were as I’d ordered.

But evidently the florist thought my bridal bouquet should be more elaborate.  Its formal yellow roses - perfectly coiled petals, perfectly placed - seemed so predictable, so solemn and dignified.  They also smelled too sweet.  I preferred the bobbing heads and musty, outdoorsy scent of daisies.  At that stage of my life, roses suggested hospital confinements and sad, final goodbyes at funerals. I would have been more at ease holding a bouquet of nodding daisies hand-picked from along the road behind our cottage, stems only loosely tied with a ribbon.  

Wild daisies are still my favorites all these years later, growing at will in a pasture or beside a road in the company of other free-spirited wildflowers.  However, two intentionally tamed patches in my yard have bloomed profusely this summer, as if to advertise childlike friendliness and happiness every time I step outdoors. They’re refreshing: fresh as a daisy.