Some flowers I picked today;

Just enough to make a bouquet.

These I gave to Helen, my wife

To brighten up her present life.

Why should I not do so for her,

When she dains to call me Sir?

For fifty years we have been together;

Have seen all kinds of weather.

The best time of the year could be Spring,

When all the birds begin to sing,

And when all God's flowers are in bloom,

Wafting the air with their sweet perfume.

God gives each flower a certain scent,

And the breeze determines where its sent.

Oh, that God's children only went

Where He ordains them to be sent!

Each flower has its own perfect beauty,

Blooming where God placed it on duty.

That flower never strays from the place

Where God can look upon its face.

Oh, that men were like flowers.

In all their days and hours,

Blooming right where God placed them,

Shedding their fragrance unto Him!

Have you seen a flower rare

Sharing its fragrance there;

Content to show its majestic grace

With all who look upon its face?

Do you have a godly wife

Who is the joy of your life?

Do you pick perfumed flowers

To brighten up her hours?

There will come a day,

As you walk along the way,

When flowers will not bloom,

To brighten up her room.

So, pick all the flowers you can give,

For seasons come when they do not live,

Both for your wife and the flowers,

Then, what or who, will brighten up your hours?

When I walk along the path to the lake,

Some sweet flowers I will take

To the one I love above all on Earth,

Ever grateful for her first and second birth!

I have not long to pick the flowers,

For my years are ebbing, and my hours;

Gone soon will be the day

When blossoms dry and blow away!

And so it is with me and my wife,

For we will have used up all our life;

Then someone else will pick the flowers,

Until, they too, have no more days and hours!

Will flowers always bloom

And scatter their perfume,

And waste their sweetness on the desert air,

Even if they know no one is there?

As the poet once said*

"Full many a gem of purest ray serene,

The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear;

Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,

And waste its sweetness on the desert air."( Thomas Gray)

Bloom ye Dogwoods, Periwinkles and Jonquils,

Azaleas, Crepe Myrtles, and Daffodils,

Tulips, Sweet Williams, Hydrangeas, Zinnia

And Hyacinth, Wisteria, Lilies, and Forsythia!

For there comes one to pluck from you, your bloom,

To place you within a vase in a room:

And with great delight will bring joy to a wife,

By simply giving up your life!