Daffodils and Elephants
Don’t be scared of what excites you. Always stay curious about yourself and the people and places around you. Focus on the work and goals you have set for yourself, and never compare yourself to others.
— Ingi Mehus Storyteller, Nat Geo Explorer
Spring is here in Southern Ontario. The early daffodils are appearing like bright yellow spotlights highlighting the coming season. Daffodils are like a hallelujah flower chorus shouting Yes! Life! I plant a couple of hundred daffodil bulbs every fall. It’s a ritual I’ve carried out for close to 40 years. I began on our country property, by the time we moved away 28 years later there were thousands of blooms along every path, garden bed and forest edge.
Our city lot doesn’t have room for 100’s of daffodils so I took my fall ritual to my son’s family farm. After a few years of planting, a yellow line of blooms is developing along a rustic laneway bordered by two stone walls. It makes my heart skip just to see the green shoots poking through the leaf litter in early April. If the weather co-operates the joyful flower show lasts for 3 weeks until the leaves are out on the trees.
Daffodils herald the transition from the quiet monochrome of winter to the greening of spring. My upcoming book The Wisdom of Elephants is about a different transition; the ending of my 30-year career as a therapist and the death of my mother. Like the bulbs hidden in the earth, there was new life growing outside of my awareness in the winter months that followed these significant endings. It took the elephants of Amboseli to herald in a new season and creative focus in my life.
I’ve met extraordinary people in the process of launching my blog, publishing my book and expanding my online network. There is a common desire to raise awareness about making the world a better place. Two words keep showing up – generosity and sustainability. I’m inspired by the collaboration of individuals to make sustainable choices and create products for good.
Lisbeth Moneton founded A Wish for Humanity with a team of international women, to raise funds for women-led charities. A Wish for Humanity supports women who are working to change lives through education, protection and empowerment. I’m delighted to collaborate with A Wish for Humanity and support their vision with my art by donating one of my large-scale Wisdom of Elephants prints to their new online gallery. A Wish for Humanity has a unique purpose for selling art.
We are convinced that creativity and art have the power to open minds and to change the world.
Buying art for a good cause not only gives you the pleasure of owning a wonderful art piece, but also the satisfaction that your gesture really can make a life-change for someone in the world.
I’m thrilled to be A Wish for Humanity’s featured Artist of the month. The sale of my elephant print will raise funds for elephant conservation. Intentional purchases can be both beautiful and give back – it’s a win/win model that gets more beautiful with time, just like daffodils!
Check out A Wish For Humanity’s gallery here.
