Mums

There's something about mums that's so hard for me to resist.

Valentines have just passed by a few weeks ago, and I hate seeing roses, tulips and lilies flooding the city. These flowers are loved for their beauty and picture perfect appearance. They come in overflowing huge buds, carefully packaged and transferred over the Atlantic to cater to those couples and would be couples. They cost a lot, and they die relatively quickly after they've been cut out of their roots.

Mums, on the other hand, are the most basic looking flowers you'll see around, and practically anywhere, in any season. But that doesn't make them any less than their more coveted counterparts; True, they look quite messy with all those leaves and branched off stalks, looking more like a bush rather than the prefectly prim and proper red rose, but they're beautiful because they look like they've been snipped fresh from the garden.

My first flower gift I bought was for my first boyfriend. I went to the a popular flower store in the Philippines called Hollands Tulips, but I never looked any longer than 5 seconds at the tulips they were selling. They were ridiculously overpriced, and so were the lilies and the roses. And besides, why in the world would you want to give a guy a rose or a lily or a tulip? Guys were practical, and something simple is adequate. So then that I looked about the so many selections of flowers, and my eyes immediately rested on a section where they were showing off these wild, stalky and earthy looking flowers that looked a bit like sunflowers, but none of that picturesque quality that huge sunflowers would have. A lot of them had multicolored petals, a dark brownish color fading to yellows and oranges. Some have a deep purples that faded into reds and yellows. Others had a bright solid blue hue, some had strong reds, others have delicate yellows. In a huge mix of colors, they looked bright, happy.. and strangely enough, perfect.

I eventually bought my first fresh bouquet flowers composed of blue malaysian mums to celebrate my first boyfriend's high school graduation. It was then that I started my affair with mums. Even after my first relationship disappeared, my affair with mums still persisted on.

I've received many flowers over the years. For my birthday, for Valentines, for Christmas. I've received humongously mutated looking white roses that had huge buds which seemed like they were cultivated from a radioactive laboratory. I've received white lilies that where equally as huge, and filling the room with fresh, sweet scent - of which my mom as very allegic to. I've received purple tulips that looked perfect against a backdrop of white accents, but they all didn't beat my affair with the average mum. I never wanted to look like I was perfect, and neither were my mums. They were hardy, they were down to earth, they were sturdy and they last for a very long time. When you wake up with a fresh stalk of mums, and you can't help but reach out and arrange them delicately against the warm, streaming sunlight coming from your window still. Other flowers don't do that.. they look so perfect, you end up just looking at their perfection. That's not what love is, that's not what life is.

Mums are the best.. and they can live through the seasons. That's why I love them so much, and so very indicative of my personality. Perfection in the mudane, beauty in the ordinary. And to live as long and flourish as beautifully as possible, despite the hardships or challenges that we face in our daily lives. Even an average off the road picked mum will look as perfect as the proudest, carefully cultivated red rose.

A mum is never always just a mum. Don't ever look down on this humble stalk... They're always the ones that will last the longest.