Written by: Yvonne Ashton
1/24/2011 7:58 AM 

What do you see when you look at the following picture?

Many might see just a few yellow snapdragons growing out of a crack in the pavement. Many probably have passed by a similar unassuming scene previously and never gave it a second thought.

Now can you guess what Mayesh's CEO, Pat Dahlson thought? He thought it was quite the scene so much so that while driving to the airport as he spotted the beautiful snaps, he turned his car around to take a picture. As he pulled up to a spot that he could take a picture from his cell phone, he also blocked traffic for an entire green light. When the surrounding cars realized what he was doing they patiently waited for Pat to get the picture he turned around to get.

After taking the picture, he emailed me and followed up with a call prompting me to write this blog post. He was so enthusiastic about the snapdragon scene because he thought it was a very accurate representation of people's recent hardships and what our very near future holds. If you ever met Pat then you know his enthusiasm is quite contagious and while he was telling me his story I felt like I was right there with him and saw what he saw - beauty and light struggling and fighting through the immensely hard and jagged asphalt. And not only struggling and fighting but persevering.

This is a great metaphor for the daily grind that we, floral professionals, endure. We fight to find the most beautiful fresh cut flowers in the world, fight to get those products to the right customers at the right time, we've fought to be standing here today. These last couple of years have been tough on many businesses and individuals alike, but with hard work, dedication, mixed with some blood, sweat, and tears, the world tends to bring balance and beauty back to our lives.

So we are back to the simple picture of sunshine yellow snapdragons growing through cracking pavement along a road . . . Take a closer look.  What do you see now?