Tulip Memories

Turner surprised me with these on Saturday thanks to the little hint I dropped.  They made me so happy because Tulips are my absolute favorite.  He asked me why I loved tulips so much and it got me thinking.  

It wasn't at all for the obvious reason of them being so beautiful with clean colorful lines.  No my love for tulips started long before I developed any sort of aesthetic or even the realization of how special you feel when you receive them.  

My love for tulips started when I was a child and they were my mother's favorite flower.  At least that is how it started.  My mother was raised in a dutch home in a dutch community called Holland, Michigan.  It really was like a miniature Netherlands with windmills and wooden shoe factories and even a tulip time of their own.  I have so many fond memories of spending summers up there as a child.  

My mother was constantly collecting posters, photographs, and artwork of quintessential dutch scenes and tulip time.  It became a tradition that every summer we would add to our collection.  While I don't remember having live tulips in our house very often, the flowers still surround so many of my happy childhood memories.  Memories of summers with my family.

It has been close to 8 years since I have spent a summer in Holland.  And I am sure it is nothing like what I remember it to be.  But I am so glad that Turner asked me why tulips were so special to me, because I couldn't quite put my finger on it before.  But now I realize that one flower has all my carefree childhood memories wrapped up into it.  Because while flowers are beautiful on their own, it makes me really happy to know there is a special one that can bring some of my carefree days back to me.  And that makes me feel really lucky.