"The most significant gifts are the ones most easily overlooked. Small, everyday blessings: woods, health, music, laughter, memories, books, family, friends, second chances, warm fireplaces, and all the footprints scattered throughout our days."  - Sue Monk Kidd 

The bloom of the wax plant, even though it's spectacular, can easily be overlooked. The clusters hang beneath branches so heavy with leaves that the downward flowers are almost hidden.

I'm grateful to have noticed them when I walked the pathways upon arrival here in the botanical garden I write about in The Twelve Gifts from the Garden.

I learned that the wax plant flower represents wealth and I think about the richness of gifts and blessings we have in our lives, whether or not we are affluent.

This flower reminded me to appreciate the day's simple joys, such as laughing with my husband when we got drenched in a sudden rainfall, warming in a hot shower, drying with a fresh towel, the smell of dinner roasting, going out for ice cream...being here on Sanibel Island, simply being. 

Let's notice simple things that uplift us today, including simply being.

With love and joy,
Charlene