Joining the Gypsy Mama's Friday group once again this week, with 5 minutes of unedited writing on this week's topic: Waking Up...
I am most definitely NOT a morning person. Never have been, never will be. My clock runs so very differently from many - I like to be up late; I like to sleep in. But there was a stretch of time - during one of my several past lives (and yes, I've lived long enough to have several of those...) when early morning was one of my favorite times.
For seven years, (4 years of which I was a seminary student - but that's from another life!) I ran a small (very small) floral business out of my garage. Started with daughter #1's wedding and ended with daughter #2's. At that time we lived in an eastern suburb of LA and to gather flowers for any given project, I needed to drive to the downtown area of that sprawling megalopolis and visit the Flower Mart.
There is no place on earth quite like the Los Angeles flower market. Stretching about 2 long city blocks in each direction, it is a bustling hub of activity from about 2:00 a.m. til noon. And it smells fantastic! If I had a wedding or a party to do, I'd set my alarm for 5:00 and head out as the sun first began to peek over the eastern hills, tooling down the Pasadena freeway and pulling into the multi-level lot.
There must be at least 200 different vendors - selling everything from the common (carnations/roses/greens) to the extraordinarily exotic (orchids/protea/wildflowers). I loved it! Picking out colors and textures, sizes and shapes, stocking up on supplies at the upstairs supermarket-of-all-things-floral. That was one time in my life that I didn't mind waking up early, although I've got to be honest here....I don't miss it one little bit.
STOP.
Wow - five minutes is not very long, is it? Would love to have told you that this vast array of beauty was a primary source of inspiration and God-breathing for me - but...no time. :>)
I have no digital pictures from that time of my life (let's see it was TWENTY FOUR years ago that I began that life!), but here are a couple of recent shots of the kinds of flowers I loved to work with - top to bottom: red ginger; coral bouvardia; tuberose (white) and pink ginger; purple dendrobium orchids.
