The Flower of Motherhood

My favorite flower is a gardenia. Its fragrance is beyond description…

I can get one whiff of it’s fragrance in the air and immediately know that there is a gardenia nearby.

When I was young and living in Virginia, we had quite a few gardenia bushes in our yard. When they bloomed, my little nose stayed buried in its flowery petals. More times than I can remember, I would sniff up a gnat or pollen. Nothing stopped me.

Now it has become the joke that I will take a petal, sniff really hard and cause the suction to keep the petal covering my nostril.

I know…I’m crazy.

If I am “out” and find a bush covered with fragrant blooming gardenia flowers, Alyssa will immediately say, “DON’T embarrass me.”

What makes her say such a thing?

One day Alyssa and I were in Home Depot looking at EVERYTHING. I could spend a day in that store and I don’t even like shopping. We eventually made our way to the garden supplies and what to my amazement did we find?

Gardenia bushes!

I need to interject that the store was empty. I know that is unusual, but really, no one was around. So I found a fallen petal on the concrete and held it up to my nose.

It is like the drug they give you before you go into surgery. Everything feels right and I feel rather “floaty.”

Then the imp takes over and I look at Alyssa who is glaring at me and daring me to act out of line. Sometimes she can be so old.

I couldn’t help myself. I sniffed really hard and the petal covered my nostril hole.

I smiled big and kept sniffing while wiggling my booty as if I could really dance. Alyssa furrowed her brow and sternly said, “Mo-om!”

I just kept on acting silly and trying to “make a moment” with my child.

Her face was turning red. I didn’t know if it was from anger or embarrassment. No one was in the store so surely it couldn’t be embarrassment.

Or could it?

I took the petal off my nose and turned around.

There stood an older gentlemen staring at me like I was an alien.

I’m sure I blushed, but then I thought…

What the heck! I created “a moment” with Alyssa…one she won’t soon forget. A moment when she sees me as not just her mom, but as a woman.

Just as she started out like a gardenia bud, she is blooming into a beautiful young woman…

Some day she will be sniffing petals in the middle of Home Depot while embarrassing her children.

I heard that…Yes you will!

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Sherry Riter is also known as The Redhead Riter. Sherry is witty, intelligent and addictive as she writes about cooking, family, marriage, failures, blogging tips, art, humor, inspiration, travel, PTSD and aging. Her goal is to inspire, motivate, educate and to make her audience laugh. Sherry embraces being a redhead and helps others to see the redhead point of view…"In some eras redheads were worshipped while others thought us witches. Personally, I like the former and think every day is 'Love a redhead day!'" She can also be found on Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, Linkedin, tweeting as @TheRedheadRiter and you can subscribe to her free blog feed.