On a hot summer day in July, I decided to get out and embrace the weather by taking my camera for a walk at the Huntington. On this day, the daisies caught my attention. After I selected the perfect daisy, I focused the camera and through the view finder, I imagined words populating the petals. At that moment the words were not perfectly formed, but as I walked around, I considered the daisy.
Daisies are famous for women to pluck the flowers with He loves me. He loves me not. I began to consider what this meant, it meant that women had been for generations dependent upon the vicissitudes of man's desires. Women have progressed far enough that we no longer need to depend on whether a man can support us or not, we can support our selves. But women often often sell ourselves short. I want to change the meaning of this flower that traditionally demonstrates dependency to one that encourages reach and embraces the potential of a person. Initially I called the photo Girl Power, morphing off Flower Power from the 60s.
Continuing my thoughts over the next serval days, Girl Power didn't settle with me. As I explored my feeling why, I came to understand that yes, women and myself among them, need to believe in the truth of these words. Within us we hold all this power, we just need to tap into it. But, then I understood what was hanging me up. It isn't just women that need to exercise our verbs of power, it is everyone. We all need to tap into the potentials that these words can unlock. I believe, I aspire, I forgive, I love, I create, I trust...These are not words just for one group, they are for everyone. Some people have an abundance of some of these verbs, but less of others, we need the full compliment is varyingly equal portions depending on the situation, but we still need full and equal use of them. So I have settled with the name Petal for Humanity. When we are all able to live the truth of these words as a whole and not simply picking a choosing which one, there is hope for us all. A flower with one or two petals is not a beautiful one, we feel feel that it is not healthy and is perhaps dying. And so, it is with each of us, without all of our petals, we do not thrive. We all have these potentials, we simply need to unlock them, so that each and everyone of us can blossom and the garden of humanity is full, lush and beautiful.