Here is a story I just got from the widow of my Godson.  She sent it saying 
she thought of me because she thought I had been planting a daffodil garden 
with the long series of students I have taught over the last 25 years.  I 
hope she's right; and if she is, then you too have been involved in this 
task.  I hope the message will brighten your day as much as it did mine.

Lala

THE DAFFODIL PRINCIPLE....

Several times my daughter had telephoned to say, "Mother, you must come see 
the daffodils before they are over." I wanted to go, but it was a two-hour 
drive from Laguna to Lake Arrowhead. "I will come next Tuesday," I 
promised, a little reluctantly, on her third call.

The next Tuesday dawned cold and rainy. Still, I had promised, and so I 
drove there. When I finally walked into Carolyn's house and hugged and 
greeted my grandchildren, I said, "Forget the daffodils, Carolyn! The road 
is invisible in the clouds and fog, and there is nothing in the world 
except you and these children that I want to see bad enough to drive 
another inch!"

My daughter smiled calmly and said, "We drive in this all the time, Mother. 
"Well, you won't get me back on the road until it clears, and then I'm 
heading for home!" I assured her.

"I was hoping you'd take me over to the garage to pick up my car." "How far 
will we have to drive?" "Just a few blocks," Carolyn said. "I'll 
drive.  I'm used to this. "After several minutes, I had to ask, "Where are 
we going? This isn't the way to the garage!" "We're going to my garage the 
long way," Carolyn smiled, "by way of the daffodils." "Carolyn," I said 
sternly, "please turn around." "It's all right, Mother, I promise.

You will never forgive yourself if you miss this experience."  After about 
twenty minutes, we turned onto a small gravel road and I saw a small 
church. On the far side of the church, I saw a hand-lettered sign that 
read, "Daffodil Garden."

We got out of the car and each took a child's hand, and I followed Carolyn 
down the path. Then, we turned a corner of the path, and I looked up and 
gasped. Before me lay the most glorious sight. It looked as though someone 
had taken a great vat of gold and poured it down over the mountain peak and 
slopes. The flowers were planted in majestic, swirling patterns --great 
ribbons and swaths of deep orange, white, lemon yellow, salmon pink, 
saffron, and butter yellow. Each different-colored variety was planted as a 
group so that it swirled and flowed like its own river with its own unique 
hue. There were five acres of flowers. "But who has done this?" I asked 
Carolyn. "It's just one woman," Carolyn answered. "She lives on the 
property. That's her home." Carolyn pointed to a well-kept A-frame house 
that looked small and modest in the midst of all that glory.

We walked up to the house. On the patio, we saw a poster. "Answers to the 
Questions I Know You Are Asking" was the headline...The first answer was a 
simple one."50,000 bulbs," it read. The second answer was, "One at a time, 
by one woman. Two hands, two feet, and very little brain."  The third 
answer was, "Began in 1958."  There it was. The Daffodil Principle. For me, 
that moment was a life-changing experience. I thought of this woman whom I 
had never met, who, more than forty years before, had begun -- one bulb at 
a time -- to bring her vision of beauty and joy to an obscure mountain top. 
Still, just planting one bulb at a time, year after year, had changed the 
world. This unknown woman had forever changed the world in which she lived. 
She had created something of ineffable (indescribable) magnificence, 
beauty, and inspiration. The principle her daffodil garden taught is one of 
the greatest principles of celebration. That is, learning to move toward 
our goals and desires one step at a time -- often just one baby-step at a 
time --and learning to love the doing, learning to use the accumulation of 
time. When we
multiply tiny pieces of time with small increments of daily effort, we too 
will find we can accomplish magnificent things. >We can change the world.

"It makes me sad in a way," I admitted to Carolyn. "What might I have 
accomplished if I had thought of a wonderful goal thirty-five or forty 
years ago and had worked away at it 'one bulb at a time' through all those 
years. Just think what I might have been able to achieve! "

My daughter summed up the message of the day in her usual direct way. 
"Start tomorrow," she said.

It's so pointless to think of the lost hours of yesterdays. The way to make 
learning a lesson of celebration instead of a cause for regret is to only 
ask, "How can I put this to use today?"

......Author Unknown


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"La honra puédela tener el pobre pero no el vicioso."
         -Miguel de Cervantes- Don Quijote de la Mancha
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"I divide all readers into two classes:  Those who read to
remember and those who read to forget."
                         -William Phelps
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Oralia Preble-Niemi, Ph.D.
Professor and Head
Foreign Languages & Literatures
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Chattanooga, TN  37403
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