Rewiring myself with flowers

I've been re-cultivating a habit of taking daily walks. At first I thought they should be in the morning, but today I decided to ditch the perfectionism and walk in the afternoon. I love the warmth of spring and it helps me to get through my post-lunch energy slump (I'm a bear if you're into chronotypes). I might just make this a thing until the summer changes things up.

The timing means I got out after the post arrives for the day. And this beauty was just sitting in my mailbox. Ever the entrepreneur, I thought-- I'll take this with me on my walk and see if I can get some shots with the early spring blooms for social media, which might also be useful to my friend ★ Helen Iwata ★ The Less Effort More Impact Coach, since it was her brilliant activity in our last #lesseffortmoreimpact event for women in business to write a love letter to ourselves. And she was right-- I totally forgot that I did this (hello negativity bias) so I was delighted to receive this today. My literal first thought was, who sent me this cute letter. And then right after, oh I DID!

So back to the flowers-- as I was posing my cute letter in a bush, an elderly lady came up to me and took the opportunity to share some flower facts with me. I took a moment to soak up the sweetness, both of the flowers' fragrance and of the woman's moment of connection with someone she might not have even been sure could understand what she was saying. But she didn't assume anything, just told me that the flower's name was "沈丁花" (winter daphne) and let me know that it was the first flower to bloom in spring, and that if I cut a piece and put it in a vase it would make the whole room smell wonderful. And then said a polite goodbye and floated off.

Spring is full of opportunities for little moments of connections and nervous system "glimmers" like this. And when lots of little experiences like this pile up, and you take a breath or two to really feel and enjoy each one, your whole life can change.

What's your version of this?