By Special Arrangement

www.StephenGeez.com

Art by Brian J. Smith

Flower arrangement,

Overcoming handicap,

Inspiration,

The world is in disarray.

But look closer, and you'll discover something extraordinary, a bright spot uniquely compelling, that most personal of expressions coaxing a hint of beauty.

Some are content to dwell within the chaos, while others can't help but impose order: a place for everything, everything in its place. What we need, though, are more of those rare individuals who see beyond the quotidian, the few who somehow intuit even the simplest ways to rearrange a small part of the world and thus touch our hearts.

My Aunt Dot is one.

Dorothy Stewart spends much of her time in that botanical delight she calls a backyard on the fringes of a byway in Middle Tennessee. By her very nature, if no longer by trade, she's a floral designer, master decorator, landscape artist, and quintessential arranger extraordinaire. Drop a few sprigs of fresh-cut this or that into any old soup can and she'll promptly create the most exquisite bouquet, a still life that refuses to sit still as it dares to come alive.

I've noticed two things about how Dot creates her magnificent arrangements: she works with whatever she's given, and she's willing to let go of that which does not fit.

Where another artist might strive to fulfill some precise, unwavering vision, sending you off to fetch that overly specific hard-to-find stem in the exacting shade of lavender, Aunt Dot instead looks closer until she discovers how to bring out the best in whatever waits patiently before her.

And where too many of us might never prove so bold, she'll not hesitate to chop that one shorter, strip a few of these leaves, peel one or two layers off that, and discard the rest of those. She'll declare that her world simply gets along better without all that, thank you very much.

Psychologists speak of the hierarchy of needs, the rudimentary understanding that we must necessarily focus first on food, shelter, our very survival; and that esthetics compete for attention only when our most primal necessities have been fulfilled.

But maybe all these needs really exist side by side, base survival and appreciation for beauty both engaged in a syncopated dance so one lifts us in time even as the other dips.

But what if we fall, or the world lays us out with the harshest of blows?

Many decades ago, as a young wife and mother, Aunt Dot faced a challenge greater than most could ever imagine. An instant of twisted metal and shattered glass left her critically injured, every new moment she managed to cling to life an unexpected miracle.

Is it possible at a time like that to seek beauty in a broken body? Maybe that's when it's most important to look ahead, to discover what might still come to pass, to summon the will to work with what we have and let go of that which no longer fits.

Where in any hierarchy of needs do we slot concerns about the size and shape of surgical scars? The stress of struggling to manage unmanageable pain? The fear of permanently losing one's mobility?-all the while knowing that five young children still need their mother, not so much for food and shelter, but for those profound expressions of love seen in helping a son match jacket with tie for his first formal date, in teaching a daughter how hair and makeup are but mere accents to highlight the beauty inside, in transforming the shelter of a family's house into the esthetics of a loving home.

We have faced many challenges in the years since, but Dot helps lift us by revealing beauty even as we struggle to survive tragedies that would pull us down.

Aunt Dot is legion, one of those wondrous souls who move quietly among us, a gentle touch here, a simple arrangement there, each showing us how much more they can't help but see.

They can't make everything right, and they know better than to try, but still they dance.

So let's appreciate the Aunt Dots in our lives, and let's strive to work with whatever lies before us, to let go of that which simply cannot fit.

Then look closer, and you'll discover something extraordinary, a bright spot uniquely compelling, the most personal of expressions coaxing a hint of beauty . . .

Even when your world's in disarray.

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© 2006 The Fresh Ink Group, LLC, All Rights Reserved.

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