An Afternoon of Lavender and Inspiration

By Carol Woolum Roberts

Tuesday, I spent most of my day surrounded by lavender.

I had three boxes of lavender in our garage I had harvested last summer that I had not done anything with since I cut it off the plant.

My friend just painted a bedroom in her home lavender, and I wanted to make her something for her birthday to put in the lavender room.  To make this present, I needed to put the cut lavender into bundles.

This turned out to be a very calming, relaxing project.  It was almost like an all-day Creative Rendezvous…a time to let time and space go and just enjoy being in the moment.

This process included gathering lavender stems into bundles, wrapping a rubber band around the bundles, and then cutting off the bottom so they are somewhat uniform.

The extra lavender buds that fell off the stems were gathered into a pan, and I will use them for some other projects.  Perhaps some Lavender Jelly, Lavender Syrup or Lavender Sachets.

The gift I made for my friend involved finding some clear glass vases and adding bundles of lavender to each vase.  This way my friend can take these vases and display them in her “lavender room” as she sees fit.  Then I found a tray to display the three vases. The cool thing is I received this same tray from my friend over twenty years ago as part of a Christmas gift exchange.  The tray is now returning to her.

All flowers symbolize different things, and here is what lavender symbolizes:

Lavender symbolizes the fulfillment of wishes and dreams of love. Its scent has a soothing effect on mental fatigue. It helps with agitation and difficulty in falling asleep.

Additionally, lavender symbolizes purity, silence, devotion, attention, grace, calmness.

The lavender did have a calming effect on me throughout the day.  As I created my bundles, I also continued listening to singer Brandi Carlile’s memoir “Broken Horses”.  She is a very good storyteller, and tells the story of her rise from a poor kid in rural western Washington to a Grammy winner. 

As I ponder the things lavender symbolizes, I realize these are the things I want to have as part of my creative life, and many of them are things we are teaching others about in their creative journey.

Purity.  In relating purity to the creative process, to me this means sharing your true, pure story.  Or your pure, true piece of art.  Or your pure, true song.  Or whatever it is you are creating.  Don’t hold back.  Get it all down.  Later, once you have created it, if you need to adjust before you share it, fine.  But make the creation pure and true to what God is wanting to share through you.

Silence.  I have been learning so much over the last two years about the importance of silence in our lives, and in the creative process.  We live in a noisy world.  Conversations can be noisy.  Social media can be noisy.  Television can be noisy. Music can be noisy.  So we need to start talking time to be quiet and still and listen to the silence.  Take time to be still.  Take time to be quiet.  It takes practice.  But you learn a lot from the silence.

Devotion.  As we are in the creative process, we have a certain devotion to our work.  We are attached to what we are creating.  We have an affection toward this thing we are birthing into the world.  We have a certain loyalty to what is being created, so we want to see it through, and let it be brought out into the world to share with others, in the unique way only we can create it.

Attention.  Like silence, paying attention to the world around us is also a learned practice.  It is important to observe the world around you.  This can happen on walks or sitting in your home looking out the window.  You can go to a park and people watch.  However you choose to pay attention, try and do this at least once a week to practice this skill.  By learning to pay attention, you learn to listen to that creation inside that you are devoted to and want to share with the world in your unique way.

Grace.  How does grace come into play in the creative process?  Depending on what we are creating, we can have graceful movements, such as a dancer or a painter.  We must also show grace if someone criticizes our creation.  We smile and say thank you, and offer them goodwill, (even if secretly we may be seething inside).  But being considerate of others, showing the grace that can far outweigh the knee-jerk reaction we want to have when someone comments on our work.

Calmness.  When I smell lavender, a certain amount of calmness washes over me because of the fragrance.  And we want a inner calmness.  This does not mean that we walk through life talking very softly and kind of gliding along not wanting to disturb anything or anyone.  To me, calmness is an internal attitude we can have that helps us deal with the negative thoughts or remarks that come our way.  We believe in our work.  We believe we are creating something worth sharing with the world.  So we don’t get upset about the naysayers.  We don’t get upset when it doesn’t turn out the way we want it the first time. We are calm.

P.S.  You know how we talk about how our Creative Rendezvous helps us be inspired?  Well, all my playing in the lavender and creating a birthday gift inspired me to create a lavender decoration.  I have some stemless wine glasses and some glass beads that have been stuck in a box for about six years that I don’t do anything with.  I decided to take one of the bundles of lavender I made yesterday, put some purple ribbon around it to hide the rubber band holding the bundle together, and put it in the stemless wineglass with some of the beads.  My first creation to sell at the Kellogg Farmer’s Market this summer.

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What is one of your favorite flowers, and what does it symbolize? Does this flower inspire you in any way?

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