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My Favorite Flower

 Taking a quick walk down memory lane today as I clipped and put my favorite flower into a vase. 

Isn't it funny to look back and realize how silly we were in our teenage years? At that time, I thought my favorite color was blue. I would tell people it was blue, but I didn't go out of my way to have blue things. Sometimes, a family member would buy me my (still) favorite animal in blue, and I painted my bedroom walls this light blue/teal that almost glowed in the dark! Other than that? Meh.

In that same vein, when I was in high school and first started "dating", as dating can be in high school, I swore my favorite flower was purple roses. Why roses? Romantic. Shows effort. Why purple? Because I was "different", purple wasn't a color you could always find easily or so I thought. At the beginning of every dating episode, or relationship, you could bet your bottom dollar I got purple roses. You know, the ones they sell at the grocery store? Those. Those showed care and thought and effort and all of the other things I unfairly projected onto teenaged boys who projected their own wants back onto teenaged me.

When I first started dating my now husband some 14/15 years ago, he never bought me purple roses. What was up with this dude? He'd bring me Starbucks, allergy pills when I needed them, lunch, and little things to show he thought about me during the day, but no purple roses. I'd come out of work to a bouquet of flowers on my car, but not purple roses! This dude was obviously not going to last. Finally, I asked "what gives?". His response was pretty simple, "You don't like purple roses." Don't like them? Me? I don't LIKE them? Are you crazy? They're my ... hm. I guess, if I thought about it, I didn't really like purple roses. I didn't dislike them, but they were kind of ... there? Also an option?

Which brings me to my vase today. As I've grown, I've gotten to know myself a little better. When I think about flowers now, I think about spring. When I think about spring, I think about The Crucible (I promise, this makes sense after teaching English 11 for almost 15 years) and Daniel Day Lewis's John Proctor spouting about lilacs having a purple smell. For me, and most people I think, spring is a transformative time of year, don't tell autumn, but it might be my true favorite time of year! It reminds me a lot of hope, and I view hope more as Caitlin Seida or Matthew (@Crowsfault) do more than how Emily Dickinson experiences it. I relish is watching the first signs of spring push against the cold, wind, and snow and flourish. First a light green, then darker and thicker, and finally a spot of color against the wasteland of slush on the side of the road.

My love of, and investment in, hope brings me to this: my favorite flower is the noble tulip! Beautiful and with a surprising amount of variety, but also strong enough to push through the hard soil and bestow light in the darkness.


Flowers selected on Tulip Day DC (Sunday 3/15) !

Comments

  1. mrbrackbillMarch 19, 2026 at 10:21 PM

    I enjoyed your memory lane, and forgot -until I reread the first line- where it all started! Yes, we shouldn't assume that those whims of our youth will need to be favorites for life. My wife once claimed that she loved cows, and that was enough for her to get gifts and trinkets with cows on them for years and years, despite no longer really caring for the bovines!!

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