Janet with a sampling of Daniel’s Hard-working Roses

You’ll recall I recieved two dozen roses this Valentine’s Day. As it turns out, both bouquets were from one man, my sweetheart of yore, my dear-hearted friend of now, Daniel Holland, of Lake County in Northern California.

As it turns out, Daniel ordered one dozen roses and Fortune multiplied his order by two.

The arithmetic problem: 1 dozen x (Lady Fortune) 2 = 2 dozen roses received/1 dozen paid for.

This is a good thing, for Daniel is a gardener. How fitting for this hard-working gardener to have his hard-wording dollars multiplied by 2 for his Order of the Roses. And, what a note of confidence, that he told me as much and we had a mutual chuckle.

Now, these two dozen roses Fortune brought to my door, went out of my door as follows [Imagine rose petals for each offering on the list]:

** When Obinna Nwakanma came to my Gathering Room for an afternoon of talk that set the world right, we exchanged poetry books, and I sent a small bouquet of Daniel’s roses home to his wife.

** I left a half-dozen roses in my niece’s refrigerator at the White Cottage to welcome their family home from their journey of re-building in the Louisiana storm zone.

**I enjoyed the roses in my bedroom at my father’s home and then gave that half-dozen to my Cousin Cynthia and her daughter Elizabeth.

** I prolonged the life of the roses in my refrigerator. I shared the images of the roses with readers on Riehlife. [Another arithmetic problem arises….how many petals for how many roses X 500 readers per day = x] I called Daniel with frequent Rose Reports to tell him about the continuing life of the roses as they extended further into the world over the course of three weeks.

**I dried the petals and the life of the roses took more journeys, multiplying even further:

–When Nelaina came for her art date and I showed her papercutting, as mother had showed me, we assembled eight packets for each member of her family that contains a colored snowflake, a handfolded paper cup, and a few of Daniel’s hardworking rose petals.

–I placed dried rose petals in one of mother’s best sky-blue glass dishes and then placed these inside Julia’s grave…the dried petals mixing with the clods of frozen earth.

–I sent more dried petals inside notes to my two great-nieces and my niece after Julia’s burial on March 8th.

And, now, finally, the roses have completed their journey out into the world from Daniel’s heart, through my hand…and we extend their petals, beauty, and healing power in an offering of abundance and generosity…(dedicated to Oshun, Nigerian goddess of love and beauty).

It’s all due to you, Dame Fortune…that’s one heck of an arithmetic problem!