I am fascinated by the fact that the most brilliant miracles in life happen with the least amount of work. This child was created in my own body from a cell to a tadpole to a human being and all I did was ‘be still’. Now that she is an infant when she is hungry, again I do nothing, and I feel the milk letting down for her. If I do not get her latched on quick enough the milk will shoot out like a water gun as if it is determined to get to her any way it needs to. Even in competition, the times I have excelled the most are the times I have let go, not thought about the ‘win’ and just let it happen.

You would think this ‘less is more’ concept would be set in stone in me … ha!

Well at the farmer’s market last week I had the grand idea to bring flowers to sell. I told Filleigh Kay that we could have people ‘pay’ for flowers by smiling. We then added that they should draw a silly face on the white board and daddy suggested they hoola hoop.

So we cut marigolds from a bush that had grown ‘volunteer’ in the garden from last year and we set up a sign that told people all the things they needed to do to pay for their flowers … smile, draw silly face, hoola hoop …

Our first customer was a dear friend that we have known for quite some time. She gladly paid for her flower by smiling (which she always does anyway) .. drawing a really cool silly face … and even hoola hooping !

Our next customer arrived not long after. She asked about the flowers and I told her the list of things she needed to do to receive her flower … her face moved from a bit of confusion, to slight humor, to this is just silly, to I am outta here and I think I heard a ‘no thank you’ as she was walking away … I felt kind of bad for Filleigh Kay – I was not expecting anyone to turn down our requests! I was concerned she would have her feelings hurt. I looked at her and she looked at me and said …

“Why can’t we just give people the flowers without telling them to do all of that stuff.”

Ha! – I was in awe of her insight, once again, and told her “of course we can” .. and she grabbed a flower and ran off after the lady to give it to her.

Throughout the day she continued to give a flower to random people. It was interesting to see their responses …

Here is how it would go … Filleigh Kay would spot someone she wanted to give a flower to. She would grab a flower and run up to this selected person and simply hand them the flower. She would not say anything. She just held the flower out.

Most of the time the people looked confused at first and then you could see it dawn on them that this was a gift. They moved from confusion to shock. Most of them seemed like they could not believe this was happening. (keep in mind these marigolds were simply snipped from a bush in our garden that grew volunteer .. ie on their own from last year’s seed .. we did not even plant these flowers, nor water them or anything. We just picked a handful and brought them with us, really not a lot of ‘work’ at all)

One lady insisted that Filleigh Kay should put the flower back. She seemed to think Filleigh Kay had done something wrong and tried to put it back on our table, telling Filleigh Kay these are the table decorations. … Filleigh Kay finally convinced her (with my help) that she really could keep the flower.

Filleigh Kay gave flowers to some little ones too. Their expressions were different than the adults. They were not nearly as mesmerized by the ‘gift’ as the adults were, the were simply mesmerized by Filleigh Kay. Their eyes locked on to her and studied her intently from the moment they saw her to the moment their parents encouraged them on. She studied them too. It was like they were both having some deep conversation in spirit, on some radio channel we could not tune into.

When we went to bed that night we wrote in our journal. I asked Filleigh Kay what we should write about our day.

Here is an exert from that journal entry …

“Went to Farmer’s Market. Sold some chicken. Momma said that people should smile, draw silly faces and hoola hoop for a flower. I said I wanted them to have to do zero things for a flower – So I handed out flowers that rest of the day.”

How many times must I be reminded. How much proof do I need.

I can get so fixated on what I feel led to do that I get in the way of the leader.

I just wanted people to smile, I wanted them to be filled with the happy, positive energy that I feel when I am happy. .. but my idea only worked for someone who was already happy … The lady that could have really used a smile, the lady that did need our help – my way did not work for her, but Filleigh Kay’s did. Filleigh Kay managed to get her to smile by asking her to do zero things, simply by giving her something that we had paid nothing for.

How did Filleigh Kay know we should do it this way? Well, I think she was listening to her leader, but instead of over thinking it and adding her own ‘rules’ she just followed the leader and did it.

Follow your leader, but be sure to stay out of the way.

-mmj