Stories of Kindness from Around the World

My Flower Power give started with a trip to the flower store. I purchased 48 long-stem roses. I chose 4-Dozen because I was heading into round 4 of my giving for the 29-Day Giving Challenge (give something everyday for 29 days!). The manager gave me a discount and gifted me a bunch of those little water-holding do-hickeys that you can put on the ends of the stems to keep the flowers alive. If I lived in a place where it was possible to go pick wild flowers… or if I had a garden to pick from, I would have taken that route. I considered giving a few other types of flowers like daisies, or little rooted plants that people could keep longer or plant outside, but roses have spiritual significance for me.

The rose is a symbol of protection that I often use in my meditations. I carefully chose the colors as well. Here’s the symbolism for each color I picked.

Red = love, beauty, courage and respect
White = reverence, humility and white buds symbolize girlhood
Pink = appreciation, gratitude, grace, perfect happiness, and admiration
Yellow = joy, gladness, friendship, delight, the promise of a new beginning

Below is a shot of the roses before I split them all apart.

I attached a gift tag to each rose. Below is a shot of all of the materials and one of me working.

Here are the first three completed roses.

You can’t see the little water-holding do-hickeys on the bottom of the stems, but you know what those look like. You can see the cute gift cards though.

When all 48 roses had their gift tags attached, I gathered them all into a big bucket to make them easy to carry around.

My husband took me over to the corner of Santa Monica Blvd and Fairfax Ave in West Hollywood, where we parked in the Whole Foods parking lot. I began by approaching people who were putting groceries in their trunks.

“Would you like a free rose?” I asked each time.

Most people’s immediate response was one of two things.

“No thanks.”
or
“Free?”

I always assumed the “No thanks” people didn’t hear the word FREE, so I would reply to both responses the same way.

“It’s free. It’s a gift. You don’t have to sign anything or give me your email address.”

Most people would giggle at that because we’re all used to being approached by people trying to get petitions signed outside the grocery store.

Usually people would smile and accept their gift with gratitude once the FREE thing was cleared up. But a few responded with a forceful,"N0...” or “Nyet. Nyet. Nyet,” in the case of one old Russian lady. I obviously backed off when that happened and would move on to the next person.

Many people asked me why the rose was free so I told them it was for a creative project I’m working on and then I’d briefly explain the 29Gifts.org Challenge. I told them to go check out the site the next afternoon if they’d like to read my story of the day. We made a round through the Whole Foods Parking lot, then ventured out and made a couple passes by some nearby bus stops.

Here’s a shot of one of the parking lot security guards who took a rose in the parking lot. His partner later ran across the parking lot to chase me down at the nearby bus stop. He asked if he could please have a rose too so he could give it to his girlfriend. He was one of three people who came up to me and asked for roses rather than waiting for me to offer one. One guy sitting at the bus stop asked for two because he wanted to give them to his daughters.

Some people, like this woman, got very emotional and looked like they were almost going to cry when I gave them their rose.

One sweet older woman who was wobbling down the street with a cane told me, “You just made my day. I just came from my doctor where I had a very painful procedure. Thank you.”

Another adorable white-haired man who refused his rose twice before he understood it was free broke out in a happy, tearful smile and gushed while he waved his rose in the air, “Nobody ever did this sort of thing for me before. This is the nicest thing. I will remember this day until I die.”

I gave a couple roses to people working in businesses in the nearby strip mall. This woman was working hard sewing her butt off but stopped long enough to take a rose and smile in thanks.

This guy was the highlight of the day. He took the rose and then immediately re-gifted it to a lady walking down the street. He stayed at the bus stop the entire time I was making my rounds and took a total of four roses, all of which he passed on to others. He later asked me for $1.60 for his bus fare, which my husband and I gave him. As we handed out the last rose and headed back to our car, he yelled out to us. “You come back again tomorrow. I’ll be there to help hand out more roses.”

Now that’s the giving spirit.

It's time to start another 29 Days of Giving.