Mickey Mouse was right about one thing –  dreams can come true. I heard this at Disney World, and I cried. Maria, who was with me, was a dream come true.

My flower dreams are coming true. The flowers have taken my photography to another level; I have never received so many kind and appreciative words about anything I have written.

I am learning something about light and focus every day. I’m learning to pay attention.

I hoped the flowers would help lift people up and spread color and light, and they are.

I thank you for that.

Beyond that, my floral dreams were that these flowers would go to brighten the houses and spirits of people we know and people who need uplifting.

That is underway. This summer, almost everyone I know will get some of my flowers, as long as they last.

They go to my doctors, to the Amish once a week, some migrant workers down the road, and beginning this morning, to the Mansion every week. We cut them together, and Maria trims the flowers and makes the bouquets.

Maria is going to teach her art class there this morning, and we decided to pool our flowers and start passing them out to the world. Two are going with her to the Mansion; one is heading just up the hill to the Amish family, the millers.

I didn’t realize just how much the Amish love flowers. They don’t plant them themselves (too self-indulging)  but appreciate them and love them in their home.

That’s a nice thing to do to a friend. They light up with smiles when they see my bouquets. That is a beautiful life for flowers.

Dreams can come true, and I think they take more than wishing, though; they take some determination, bravery, and hard work. The trick is never to quit and never let peckerheads or anyone else get you to stop.

I read a story the other night about a young artist whose teacher told her to give up art, that she had no talent for it and would go nowhere.

The devastated young woman went to another artist, a famous one, and told her what her teacher had said.

What should she do? she asked.

“Oh, that’s simple,” said the artist, “you need to get yourself another teacher.”

And she did, and she is an artist now,  years after that conversation.

I love that story. I never listened to people who told me I would never be a writer, let alone an artist. The creative voice people have to listen to is the one inside of their heads.