I want to join with you by sharing what I am able to uniquely contribute, and am passionate about, to help others flourish.
What is Flourish?
We kind of know what the definition of words are, but to look them up makes them come more alive. This was true when I typed in the word flourish into my online dictionary. To flourish is to thrive, to grow, to exist in abundance, to be alive, to abound, to be productive, to succeed.
Don’t we just want to live in these amazing positive words? Even just the reading of them is uplifting and life-filling. It is a human desire (perhaps even a need) to flourish.
At some time, we could do with encouragement, or will no doubt find ourselves in a state of the opposite of flourishing. Physically, mentally, socially, spiritually, we maybe in ill-health, hardship, feeling low, lost, or stuck. We all know to some extent how that all feels.
Flourish is to help lift the spirits of those who maybe struggling in some way, or to say thank you to someone or a community group that help people. The hope is that the generosity of one or many, can help another to get back to flourishing.
But I also value kindness, and random acts of it. Kindness helps us flourish as well. You know the old but very true saying, "It is more blessed [i.e brings greater joy] to give than to receive." Perhaps the word joy should be added to the definition of "to flourish".
If you want to show someone a random act of kindness, "just because" - I love that! And I'd love to be part of helping you flourish through showing kindness and at the same time, the recipient flourish through receiving a beautiful bouquet of flowers.
So, let's do it!
Why Flourish?
I was bought up to be open-handed. My parents were generous people. They didn’t have a lot. We were a big family and it would’ve been easy for them to live in survival mode, but they didn’t. They gave their time, their money and their talents to help others. This was modeled to us as kids.
I’d just love to be the same.
I love this ideology,
“everything is yours and everything is not yours”.
To give is not to be the saviour. It is not to come from emotional notions of possession or entitlement. It is not charity. It is not,
“These flowers are mine, I am giving you what is mine”,
rather,
“These flowers are ours. We are sharing what is ours”.
This way of sharing rather than possessing just sounds right to me.
I’m passionate about the beauty of flowers
I love the sentiment they convey
I just can’t get enough of designing with them
So, gathering all these thoughts and desires together, Flourish is for the community of Raglan, where I share alongside of you, in a random act of kindness, or with someone who in this moment needs encouragement, and we can do that with what we collectively have here on this planet, that we all share. We all have unique and individual things to bring into this pool of sharing. For me, this is floristry.
It may not have escaped you that the word, 'flourish', is also a word that describes the thriving of a flower crop – meaning many blooms, a flush, generous in their production. Flourish is a play on words - recognizing that there are those who may not be flourishing right in this moment, or who would flourish through a little encouragement - and flowers say things that words cannot.
The beauty of flowers, the giving of flowers always carries meaning.
Flourish says,
“We see you. Our desire is that you will find your way back into a place of flourishing. We want to share with you what from we have.”
It says,
"Thank you for helping others to Flourish."
It says,
"Just because I'd love you to Flourish."
This ideology puts everyone in a place of “we are all the same. We are humankind - together”. Title, culture, gender, age, financial position, beliefs, etc do not come into play here. Respect, togetherness, kindness, and seeing people, are the values of Flourish.
How does Flourish work?
At the end of each month, a bouquet of flowers will be shared with a charity, a trust, a community group, or a person who is either working in the field of helping others, or is in a place of needing encouragement. Its not just me though – I partner with you. You let me know who could benefit from Flourish, and I create the bouquet and deliver it to them – at no cost to you.
A Flourish Story
A woman come to my floristry workshop. She was in Raglan for a retreat. I don’t know her circumstances. I do know that for her to be given these days of retreat, she needed to be recommended by a GP or a counsellor. She came in every day for 11 days. Each day, she bought a single flower. Her goal was that at the end of her time, she would have a bouquet of flowers. I loved this idea. Over this time, we became more acquainted. The retreat for her was life-filling, and restorative. It had given her new perspective. Perhaps she was able to put into place some positive changes to move forward. I hope ‘home’ for her was not abusive, or a place of defeat. We hugged when she left that last day. What has been her experience since leaving, I have no idea, but what a privilege it was to be part of her time here in Raglan. I’d just love this idea to multiply in helping others move back towards flourishing.
So, if you’re interested, pop on back to the Flourish page on my website, and send me an email. I’d love to hear from you.