My young friend Suzan sent me this story and I just had to pass it along. I could not reproduce the photo of a field of daffodils, so I used flowers from my “photo shoot” at Longwood Gardens last week.

The Daffodil Principle

Several times my daughter had telephoned to say, “Mother, you must come to 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.

Next Tuesday dawned cold and rainy. Still, I had promised, and reluctantly I drove there. When I finally walked into Carolyn’s house I was welcomed by the joyful sounds of happy children. I delightedly hugged and greeted my grandchildren.

“Forget the daffodils, Carolyn! The road is invisible in these clouds and fog, and there is nothing in the world except you and these children that I want to see badly 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.

“But first we’re going to see the daffodils. It’s just a few blocks,” Carolyn said. “I’ll drive. I’m used to this.”

“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 with an arrow that read, “Daffodil Garden.” We got out of the car, each took a child’s hand, and I followed Carolyn down the path. Then, as we turned a corner, 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 over the mountain peak and its surrounding slopes. The flowers were planted in majestic, swirling patterns, great ribbons and swaths of deep orange, creamy white, lemon yellow, salmon pink, and saffron and butter yellow. Each different-colored variety was planted in large groups so that it swirled and flowed like its own river with its own unique hue. There were five acres of flowers.

“Who did this?” I asked Carolyn.

“Just one woman,” Carolyn answered. “She lives on the property. That’s her home.” Carolyn pointed to a well-kept A-frame house, small and modestly sitting 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 one brain.” The third answer was, “Began in 1958.”

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 mountaintop. Planting one bulb at a time, year after year, this unknown woman had forever changed the world in which she lived. One day at a time, she had created something of extraordinary 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 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.

She was right. It’s so pointless to think of the lost hours of yesterdays. The way to make learnin g a lesson of celebration instead of a cause for regret is to only ask, “How can I put this to use today?”

Use the Daffodil Principle. Stop waiting…

Until your car or home is paid off
Until you get a new car or home
Until your kids leave the house
Until you go back to school
Until you finish school
Until you clean the house
Until you organize the garage
Until you clean off your desk
Until you lose 10 lbs.
Until you gain 10 lbs.
Until you get married
Until you get a divorce
Until you have kids
Until the kids go to school
Until you retire
Until summer
Until spring
Until winter
Until fall
Until you die…

There is no better time than right now to be happy.

Happiness is a journey, not a destination.
So work like you don’t need money.
Love like you’ve never been hurt, and,
Dance like no one’s watching.

If you want to brighten someone’s day, pass this on to someone special.

I just did!

Wishing you a beautiful, daffodil day!

“Don’t be afraid that your life will end, be afraid that it will never begin.”

~Anonymous

February was National Heart Association month, but this email just came to me from my friend Dorothy and the person who sent it to her wants as many people as possible to read it. So here is is, with only the initials at the end as the identity of the author. This is a long article, but well worth the reading, since the life you save may be your own…or someone else’s.

HEART ATTACK IN WOMEN . . . HOW IT FEELS

This woman does a great job of describing what was
felt during her heart attack.

I’ve meant to send this to my women friends to warn them that it’s true that women rarely have the same dramatic symptoms that men have when experiencing a heart attack you know, the sudden stabbing pain in the chest, the cold sweat, grabbing the chest & dropping to the floor that we
see in the movies.

Having had a completely unexpected heart attack about 10:30 p.m. with NO prior exertion, NO prior emotional trauma that one would suspect might’ve brought it on, it was this past April,’06, about 1-1/2 hours after I’d spent a pleasant 2 hrs. rehearsing with the Note-a-Belles.

I was sitting all snuggly & warm on a cold evening, with my purring cat in my lap, reading an interesting story my friend had sent me,and actually thinking, “Ahhhh, this is the life, all cozy and warm in my soft, cushy Lazy Boy with my feet propped up.” A moment later, I felt that awful sensation of indigestion, when you’ve been in a hurry and grabbed a
bite of sandwich and washed it down with a dash of water, and that hurried bite seems to feel like you’ve swallowed a golf ball going down the esophagus in slow motion and it is most uncomfortable. You realize you shouldn’t have gulped it down so fast and needed to chew it more thoroughly and this time drink a glass of water to hasten its progress down to the stomach, which doesn’t do much good, as your esophagus and
throat muscles are in spasm and it hurts to swallow.

This was my initial sensation—the only trouble was that I hadn’t taken a bite of anything since about 5:00 p.m. After that had seemed to subside, the next sensation was like little squeezing motions that seemed to be racing up my SPINE (hind-sight, it was probably my aorta spasming), gaining speed as they continued racing up and under my sternum (breast
bone, where one presses rhythmically when administering CPR). This fascinating process continued on into my throat and branched out into both jaws.
>
AHA!! NOW I stopped puzzling about what was happening. We all have read and/or heard about pain in the jaws being one of the signals of a heart attack happening, haven’t we?
I said aloud to myself and the cat, “Dear God, I think I’m having a heart attack!” I lowered the footrest, dumping the cat from my lap, started to take a step and fell on the floor instead. I thought to myself, “If this is a heart attack, I shouldn’t be walking into the next room where the phone is or anywhere else…….but, on the other hand, if I don’t, nobody will know that I need help. And if I wait any longer, I may
not be able to get up in moment.”

I pulled myself up with the arms of the chair, walked slowly into the next room and dialed the paramedics. I guess when one reaches them, your address automatically flashes on a screen, as the operator verified my address immediately and asked my symptoms. I told her I thought I was having a heart attack due to the pressure building under the sternum and radiating into my jaws. I didn’t feel hysterical or afraid, just stating the facts, ma’m. She said she was sending the paramedics over immediately, asked if the front door was near to me, and if so, to unbolt the door and then lie down on the floor where they could see me when they came in. No, I didn’t take an aspirin, as I’m allergic to it, but I did take a 100 mg magnesium oxide capsule…which bottle I keep handily in reach on the kitchen counter…which is a small detour on my way to the front door…with about a 3/4 glass of water to get it dissolving ASAP into my bloodstream.

Magnesium relaxes blood vessels as it dissolves to get them expanded to let blood get through the constriction of the vessels. I then laid down on the floor as instructed and lost consciousness, as I don’t remember the medics coming in…their examination…lifting me onto a gurney or getting me into their ambulance…or hearing the call they made to St.
Jude ER on the way. But I did briefly awaken when we arrived and saw that the cardiologist was already there in his surgical blues and cap, helping the medics pull my stretcher out of the ambulance.

He was bending over me asking questions (probably something like “Have you taken any medications?”) but I couldn’t make my mind interpret what he was saying, or form an answer, and nodded off again…not waking up until the cardiologist and partner had already threaded the teeny
angiogram balloon up my femoral artery into the aorta and into my heart where they installed two side-by-side stents to hold open my right coronary artery and now was being taken into the CCU, and looking up at the three anxious faces of Karen, Mark, and Wendy. Since I’d been a patient at St. Jude in 2002 for my TIA treatment, they had my emergency info in their system and had called my kids. I spent two days in CCU and two in general ward, then was discharged.

I know it sounds like all my thinking and actions at home must have taken at least 20-30 minutes before calling the paramedics, but actually it took perhaps 4-5 minutes before the call, and both the fire station and St. Jude are only minutes away from my home, and my cardiologist was already to go to the OR in his scrubs and get going on restarting my heart
(which had stopped somewhere between my arrival and the procedure) and installing the stents.

Why have I written all of this to you with so much detail? Because I want all of you who are so important in my life to know what I learned firsthand, as a Certified Medical Back-Office Assistant in Internal Medicine Clinics, and as one who has lived through a heart attack due to:

1. Being aware that something very different was happening in my body, not the usual men’s symptoms, but inexplicable things happening (until my sternum and jaws got into the act ). It is said that many more women than men die of their first (and last!) heart attack because they didn’t know they were having one, and commonly mistake it as indigestion…take some Maalox or other anti-”heartburn” preparation…and go to bed…hoping they’ll feel better in the morning when they wake up….which doesn’t happen. My female friends, your symptoms might not be exactly like mine, so I advise you to call the paramedics if ANYTHING is unpleasantly happening that you’ve not felt before. It is better to have a “false alarm” visitation than to risk your life guessing what it might be!

2. Note that I said “Call the Paramedics,” Ladies. TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE! Do NOT try to drive yourself to the ER. You’re a hazard to others on the road, and so is your panicked husband/friend who will be speeding and looking anxiously at what’s happening with you instead of the road, and so are your kids or friends a hazard as well. As sure as I sit here, they
will get the attention of a cop who will pull you over for speeding–more wasted time.
Do NOT call your doctor–he doesn’t know where you live and if it’s at night you won’t reach him anyway, and if it’s daytime, his assistants (or answering service) will tell you to call the Paramedics. He doesn’t carry the equipment in his car that you need to be saved! The Paramedics do–principally OXYGEN that you need ASAP. Your Dr. will be notified later.

3. Don’t assume it couldn’t be a heart attack because you have a normal cholesterol count — I did, and do, too. Research has discovered that an elevated cholesterol reading is rarely the cause of a heart attack (unless it’s unbelievably high, and/or accompanied by high blood pressure). Heart attacks are usually caused by long-term stress and inflammation in the body which dumps all sorts of deadly hormones into your system to sludge things up in there (and, of course, family genetics can be a factor. I qualify for the latter, and the years 2005 and 2006 have been the most stressful of my life since Jack died in 1981).

4. Read on for the e-mail I received today that prompted my above lecture to you: SUBJECT: Drinking ice water at mealtime (which I’ve always done until now.) Noting neither Urban Legions nor Snopes has a anything to say about this one, it must be true. Interesting, if you’ve read it before, re-read it. It may save your life. Send it to your friends and family. It may save their lives…. (She is referring to the dangers of ice water - es.) This is a very good article. Not only about the warm water after your meal, but about ladies and their heart attacks. This makes sense . . . the Chinese and Japanese drink hot tea with their meals…not cold water . . . maybe it is time we adopt their drinking habit while eating!!! Nothing to lose–everything to gain. For those who like to drink cold water, this article is applicable to you. It is nice to have a cup of cold drink after a meal. However, the cold water will solidify the oily stuff that you have just consumed. It will slow down the digestion. Once this “sludge” reacts with the stomach’s hydrochloric acid, it will break down and be absorbed by the intestine faster than the solid food. It will line the intestine. Very soon, this will turn into fats and lead to cancer. It is best to drink hot soup or
warm water after a meal. (Make it green tea–a great antioxidant!)
A serious note about heart attacks: Women should know that not every heart attack symptom is going to be the left arm hurting. Be aware of intense pain in the jaw line, or even pressure there and under sternum, or “indigestion” symptoms, especially if you haven’t eaten in several hours. You may never have the first chest pain during the course of a heart attack, but heaviness /pressure under the sternum is common.

Nausea and intense sweating are also common symptoms, but not necessarily in the women. 60% of people who have heart attacks while they are asleep do not wake up. Pain in the jaw can wake you from a sound sleep. Let’s be careful and be aware. The more we know, the better chance we could survive

A cardiologist says if everyone who gets this email and sends it to ten people, you can be sure that we’ll save at least one life. wlh…