Woman with daffodils

On the table there is a vase with 13 daffodils. A cup of coffee, half-empty, a cell phone, a note book, a laptop with a dozen open windows and a woman. The one that until this morning did not know what to write.

Occasionally this happens, in a sea of themes, you run out of inspiration.  

It is not that there is nothing to write about, not that the world has stopped and that life has embedded in itself, so the museums have dried up, but they come, such days when it is just enough for you to be. Just not talk a lot, not to reason, not to be clever, but just breathe.

And then my eyes fell on a vase with daffodils. A gift from three amazing women with incredible stories, for all of us, to celebrate the spring together.

There’s a long, tricky winter behind us. With much trouble and turmoil and challenges. We pushed through, courageously, with a smile on our face and in the greatest pain. Each of us was carrying their own burden and did not let it push us down.

Three different women, three completely different life stories, interwoven and yet their own.

One had three strokes, but is still working, living, fighting and bringing daffodils to ones she cares about. Second child suffered all winter and narrowly avoided going to another world, the one we living cannot follow. The third one had some strange life cards handed out, thinking just how to re-learn to live again, thanking that she just slipped through the eye of a needle.

All three really have something to be grateful for and why to celebrate the spring.

I look at the people around and their philosophy. Everyone is disturbed, they all complain, they all point their fingers. Newspaper columns are filled with ugly and bad news, but on the good ones, they all shook their hands and say – “It is a coincidence.”

But it’s not a coincidence. There is no coincidence in good things, only many of them take them for granted. They are accustomed to see bad, programmed to burden themselves with only ugly things, they forgot that there are beautiful things in the world, that life is a gift, that is full of colors just like a vase with daffodils. That life has the aroma, richness and spell in it.

“Life is so unfair to me!” – many are shouting.

“I have no money, I do not have the job I want, I have no partner I deserve, I have no health, I do not have a home, I do not have, I do not have, I do not have …”

But they have vision, hearing and healthy hands and feet. They are breathing, thinking and feeling. They have a family, a roof over their heads, a blanket that covers them in the evening to keep them warm. They have friends and morning coffee. They have all of the world in front of themselves to become the best version of themselves, but do not see it because they do not want to see it.  It’s easier to blame someone else. (Read how can ego get better of us)

And then a woman whose child almost died this winter smiles at them and says how today is wonderful, how she just wanted a cup of coffee with her friends and how she has beautiful flowers with her and wants to make somebody’s day wonderful as the one she is having today.

And then a woman who had three stroke sits in front of them. Not one, nut three. She says how happy she is because the postman brought the bills yesterday, so they both could stand by the edge of her fence and admired the spring flowers.  She says she is grateful she lives in this age so only one switch can turn on the light, open the water, turn on the heating. She says how she is thinking of listening to her daughter and installing a dishwasher and how happy she is just to be here. Smiling and drinking coffee with her friends.

“How will I not be happy? So I got the most beautiful gift, another new day. Day with you and a day with my family. “

You are left without text, you understand that you are foolish and ungrateful while looking at two women who have gone through the Calvary and who are looking at life with different eyes. They do not complain, do not run away when the bills come, but look forward to chatting with the postman. Do not complain about expensive fuel, not the bitch that the pension/pay is small and does not blame anyone for anything. She is not angry at the world because she had a stroke, she doesn’t blame anyone for what happened to her child.

And that she had to learn to walk and talk for the second time, it doesn’t wake up anger in her, but gratitude. A gratitude that she survived and she thinks those strokes were a greatest gift, because they changed her, because they opened her eyes and because they taught her how to enjoy life.

She has changed everything from looking at her family, jobs, neighbors and friends, the perception of herself, her body and health, eating, working-out and well – being.

She is now calm and laughing. She always has a dossier and she sees everything positive.

Woman with daffodils. After three strokes. After a child almost dyeing. After the life has chewed her up and spit her out, to fight.

And you say it’s hard and you’ve got problems?

I would say I was blessed to meet them, to have them be a part of my life even for a little bit, because they have, in that short moment, pulled the best out of me, they have taught me so much, without even knowing.

Life is a gift.  We decide whether we will experience it as such or we will choose to live our personal hell.

Every morning we get a new opportunity. It is up to us what are we going to do with it. And will we celebrate the spring or crawl back to a hole because it is too sunny?