Early Spring Beauty

I glance out my window and purple lilac blossoms wave into view as the gentle spring breezes make the boughs dance and weave on my bushes. Stepping out onto my deck, I see the last of the daffodils, and the bright yellow dandelions. The catnip is up, as is the lemon balm, mums, and the yarrow. My lavender is coming back to life with fragrant stalks. My horse is shedding enough winter hair to make an entirely new horse, and everywhere I look it's green.

The beautiful colors of spring came quite early this year. Usually it's May, not April, when my lilacs bloom, and the daffodils are early in April, not March. In fact, for a tulip festival not far from where I live, they've been piling mulch on their tulip beads; you have six weeks from when they first appear to first blooms and the festival isn't until May.

I find the beauty relaxing, a reminder that after the rain or the winter come the flowers we so long to see. It's a spiritual reminder that not everything is dark, drab, and dreary all the time, and even though we might struggle through winter (not this year), it's worth it when the flowers come out.

Personally, it's a reminder to find some beauty in our lives. It doesn't matter how stressed out we get, looking at a cat snoozing in the sun, or the lilacs outside puts smiles on our faces and we see the beauty all around us.

What beauty do you see? And as I snip a lilac branch to take to my mother today, what beauty do you share?

Roses and Valentine's Day

Did you receive roses for Valentine's Day? Red is the most popular color to give, but other colors are also given on this day.

Let's hear it for the roses...all sizes, shades and colors! The wonderful aroma, beautiful bouquets, bushes, etc., all around us.Do you know what the colors signify?

RED: Known as the Lover's Rose, shades can go from light to deep crimson. What better Valentine's gift than red roses? Maybe with chocolates to add a special "romance" meaning?

PINK: Expresses gentility, femininity, elegance, admiration. Deep pink: gratitude. Light pink: grace.

WHITE: Represents purity, innocence and celebrates weddings and young love.

 YELLOW: Evokes a sense of warmth and friendship. In Victorian times, it symbolized jealousy!

ORANGE: Symbolize desire, attraction, and passion...that can lead to a wild romance!

LAVENDER, LILAC, PURPLE: Displays enchantment, and imagination...and love at first sight.


 

TURQUOISE: Expresses well-being, calmness, fertility.

BLUE:  Embodies a sense the impossible and of mystery while hoping for an extraordinary chance for the beginning of something new.

GOLD: No better way to say "I Care", "Welcome Back", "Remember Me", my friend.





Whatever color is given is a wonderful expression of love...except black. No romance there. Just sorrow so let's hope none come your way. Although, I'm sure some paranormal romances will feature these black roses as the choice of shade for dark tales!

Credits: Teleflora, Proflowers, Morrison Gardens, Roses for Life.
Photos: Flickr: D. Sharon Pruitt, Joe Shalbotnik, The Gifted, Angela M. Michel, BONGURI, dorena-wm, KIUKO, naitokz, toastforbreakfast, and ghewqill's photostreams.

A Valentine's Day Dream Come True

Last month I posted about the too-often-true story of a romance gone bad. Now, with Valentine's Day upon us, I thought I'd pass along the story of the same broken-hearted lover two years later, happier than he'd dreamed he could be with the BFF of his childhood.

What is true love? He's learned it's not just hot sex and party time--not for long. He's suffered heartache and despair and come out wiser. He's rediscovered friendship and shared interests with the woman who's no longer a little neighbor girl...and together they've found their friendship has morphed into something more. After a lot of soul-searching he's realized he'd trust her with his life, after going through a time when the only woman he could trust was his own mother. He's discovered the best kind of passion grows from friendship and trust, where before he'd been ruled by mindless lust.

So...it's the day before Valentine's Day and he has a ring in his pocket. The spicy-sweet smell of two dozen American Beauty roses surrounds him as he stands at his best friend's door, vase in hand. His pulse accelerates when she appears, her smile welcoming him and her eyes twinkling with anticipation. He wonders how could he ever have thought of this gorgeous creature as his buddy--practically another sister?

He makes a living by persuading others but suddenly he's at a loss for words. He thrusts the vase of roses at her. "Here. The florist said these signify love and passion."

"You shouldn't have, but I love them. Come on in," she says, accepting the flowers.

Are those tears he sees welling up in her eyes? She's never looked so beautiful, and he's never loved another woman one tenth as much. She sets the roses on the table and sits beside him on the couch. A tear rolls down her cheek, and strangely that gives him courage.

"Happy Valentine's Day, sweetheart." Dare he say it? The words hadn't escaped his lips for so long, and so many hurts had followed that first commitment. He had to. "I love you."

"I love you, too." She laughed as though she didn't want to put more importance on the word. "We've loved each other since we were five years old, haven't we?"

"Yeah. But not always the way I love you now. My little guy loves you, too." In for a penny, in for a pound. "I want you to marry me." Taking her hand, he reached in his pocket, brought out the ring and slid it on her finger. "Please."

Would she ever say yes and put him out of his misery? For the longest time she just stared at her hand, seemingly mesmerized by the flash of the heart-shaped diamond he'd picked out just for her. "Oh, yes." She broke into a dazzling smile. "Did you know I've been in love with you for as long as I can remember?"

He let out the breath he'd been holding and took her in his arms. "I may not always have been very smart, but I finally wised up. You're the woman I've always wanted. I'm just sorry it took me so long to realize it."

And so, the two lived happily ever after, after all, and his little boy found a stable home full of love and laughter! Happy Valentine's Day, everybody.

For a heartwarming reunion Quickie set around the lovers' holiday, check out my latest, IRRESISTIBLE...AGAIN, available now from Ellora's Cave, Amazon.com, or ARebooks.

The best Christmas present...

Christmas has never been my favorite time of year. I always found it to be full of the spirit of grasping, rather than the spirit of giving. Tedious and stressful, I went about the motions for my family's sake...that is until nine years ago.

Where I come from in New York, we had a Christmas blizzard the likes of which no one had seen in decades. The kind of harrowing snowstorm you see on the Weather Channel or in a Lifetime Television Movie. That year, it could have starred my husband and I as we tried to make our way through feet of snow to get to the hospital. Our daughter was on her way, my birthing pains keeping time with the Christmas bells tolling at our local church.

We got to the hospital, and it was dark. No one had power and the parking lot was sparing of cars, though someone managed to shovel a narrow goat path to the front door. We walked in, my husband leading the way like Sacagawea leading Lewis and Clark, only to be asked, "Are you expected?"

I opened my coat, and the poor lady behind the narrow sliding glass looked at my burgeoning belly, a muttered "Oh!" the only thing she could manage.

We were told to head up to Maternity, alone...no orderly flying through the halls with me in a wheelchair. It was so quiet, the only thing that went through my head was the line from Twas The Night Before Christmas, "Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse." It seemed like forever, but the elevator finally pinged, and the doors slid open onto the Maternity Ward, also eerily quiet.

I was checked in and off we went to delivery. From there it was as frenetic as any normal day in the hospital, and at 8:38am December 26, a delivery nurse handed us the greatest Christmas present of our lives...all 6lbs, 7oz of her!

Today, thank God, she is happy, healthy...and 9 years old.

So I want to wish my daughter a very Happy Birthday...and to everyone else, a Joyous Holiday!

Marianne Morea