Most of us never comprehend how much power and influence we actually have. In that sense, we are much like George Bailey, the lead role played by Jimmy Stewart in Frank Capra’s classic film It’s a Wonderful Life. You may recall, George Bailey thought that he was insignificant; that he had wasted his life and ambitions by not fleeing the nest of his small community. It wasn’t until an angel named Clarence intervened when George was on the verge of suicide that allowed him to see what a mess would have become of his small town and the people he loved if he had never been born. This finally led George to understand what a powerful difference his seemingly inconsequential life had actually made.
The African-American abolitionist and humanitarian, Harriet Tubman once wrote, “Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.”
On the grand stage of life, it’s often extremely difficult for us to see or imagine ourselves as world shakers. There are too many great achievers who have risen to world figures, cured diseases, mastered business, wrote masterpieces, composed beautiful symphonies, or crafted meaningful prose. Amid all that significance, how can we possibly rise above our insignificance? Lest we allow our doubts overcome our potential, consider the following story written by a woman who penned it after visiting the Daffodil Garden in Lake Arrowhead, California with her daughter. The garden is the creation of a woman named Gene Bauer who wanted to share something with those around her, so she began the Daffodil Garden over 55 years ago.
“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, 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,’ she 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 50 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 a 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 35 or 40 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 learning 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 the kids go 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 pounds
Until you gain 10 pounds
Until you get married
Until you get a divorce
Until you have kids
Until you retire
Until summer
Until spring
Until winter
Until fall
Until you die.
Note that the position of the words above form it into the shape of a vase. That’s deliberate. It’s intended for your daffodils.”
Don’t fear that your life is insignificant. It is not. Our significance can be likened to our planting daffodil buds that, though initially unseen, shortly blossom into a masterpiece of color and beauty and give inspiration and comfort to all those who visit our life garden. No, we are not unseen. Sometimes we just can’t see ourselves in the way that others do. Each of us have touched others in such meaningful ways that those people consider the impact we have had on their lives to be quite significant. They know that their world has been changed for the better because of our being in it. We should endeavor to see ourselves in this same light. Not to foster conceit or arrogance, but to spur us to action. If we do this something will change. What will change is that we will change, our life will change, and, if we change the way we see ourselves and transform that new vision into positive action, what we will observe is that we truly can change the world. The daffodil lady had such a vision and she acted on it. Now you be the judge as to whether the world is better because of her significance.
Have an AWE-full Weekend!
William J. “Bill” Bacque’