The Flower Lady

Musings on a Living Book

A Living Book is the fit and beautiful expression of inspiring ideas and pictures of life. - Charlotte Mason

I was always fascinated with Charlotte Mason’s ideas - especially her ideas on what she called living books. I, of course, had my own built-in sense of what a living book should be from the time I was a young child - children have a great nose for the tripe and counterfeit that exist in the world. But the thoughts we only feel as a kind of ‘hunch’ by intuition, the beautiful and calm Miss Mason thought important to articulate with her pen and ink for us. She was a wise one, ole Miss Mason.

I have since had my own criterion for a living book. It is a volume that I carry to and fro - slip into my purse, read voraciously by the rumbling washing machine as I wait for a load to finish, open and read to the sip of my strawberry lemonade at my favorite tea house, the one I reach for when I am sad or tired or anxious, and which I close reluctantly when my eyelids can hold no more and the lamp must be turned off at the end of the day. Such a book will always merit a William Morris bookmark!

Happily, a pretty volume of such ‘stuff’ has been in my keeping this spring and summer. One of Theology of Home’s gorgeous offerings. Book IV, in fact. It’s simple title Arranging the Seasons carries a satisfying little draw to sit somewhere, anywhere, and peruse. As you are led “further up and further in” through its pages you discover the Flower Lady, Emily Malloy. She is part fairy sprite, whispering magical missives into your ears, and part what I might call a practical and fervent Wendell Berry-ite of the highest rank.

She lives on a piece of land with her husband and children in Mississippi and she makes me want desperately to see what she sees and what she smells and what she hears on any given morning or evening as she wanders her property there. As you read, you get the very sense that here is a soul who knows every inch of her home - and loves it deeply. That is so rare in our time - someone who knows her house and her land so intimately it has become a part of herself. You are convinced that she knows where all the best flowers and berries are hidden - where the ducks lay their eggs, or the birds build their nests each spring. You are certain she takes the time to slowly inhale the satisfying scent of homeland in the early morning breezes. She has me walking eagerly near her on every page. When she describes the season’s flowers, I find myself looking them all up in my plant identification book to see what she sees. I have learned to call them all by name. A living book teaches us to delve deeper by its own enthusiasm.

Emily leads you through a year long cycle of Winter, Spring, Summer, Autumn. You find yourself tarrying with her in each month - with her beautiful descriptions of a burgeoning or bare and waiting time in the garden. And with all these flowery images dancing in your head, she effortlessly brings it all around to meditations on the author of this floral feast, the Divine Beauty Incarnate, Who knows His way through a garden and whispers love there. You find yourself praying with her words at the end of the day. Words like these:

“Being intentional about cultivating beauty in our homes speaks to the great dignity of home and its inhabitants. We are intentional not just for the building but for those within it to communicate love. When we give our very best, we make an act of love, serving intimately. As we work to nourish, shelter, and clothe, we should lavish those in our midst with the created beauty from our hands. Creating is an act of not only love but also thanksgiving for the One who is love and beauty. Beauty affects our prayer life as it draws us into seeking God, who is beauty intangible. The more exposed we are to beauty and cooperation with God’s creation, the more sensitive we are to Him. Using these gifts as a method of praise, we present our multiplied talents back to the Father, the fount of all blessings. There is more to flowers than meets the eye: they are prayer tools. To create a form of prayer that mimics the work of God. God has allowed us to create, to share in His Creation.”

And then, just like that, she puts on her garden apron and shows you HOW to use your God given gifts to create bouquets from the flower offerings taken from your own garden (or local Walmart) and into your home. Emily worked for years in a flower shop and is a gifted and creative arranger. I have pored over the photos of her beauties in this book many a time. But she won’t let you off that easy. She lets you in on her secrets and tricks and shows you, step by step, in each chapter, for each month, some little trade secret for bringing joy to your own family, with your own random vases and pots, chicken wire and a lick and a promise. She makes you want to revel in creativity - to put down the book on the garden bench and - simply with what you have at hand - create with her. Two oranges and three herb cuttings of Basil, oregano, and parsley was all I could muster when inspiration hit me while reading one of her chapters one morning. All in a random teacup - which would make Emily smile, I think. A living book inspires you to create, to attempt, to bring joy to others with your own efforts.

This is a living book in every way. It has its own share of marvelous fairy dust sprinkled throughout. It leads one to prayer. It leads one to create and makes the day better thereby. What else can one ask of the ruffling pages between two covers? My summer has been so wonderful because of Emily Malloy. I have peered longer at flowers in parking lots, I have watched my own kitchen herbs grow taller and shine bright in the morning sunlight. I have grown to love my apartment home as much as Emily loves her Mississippi homeland. She would be glad. In my mind she has become the Flower Lady and I am most grateful she has come my way.

I toast her with my strawberry lemonade, and lift my straw sun hat in a huzzah! job well done! And I thank God for people who see the way Emily sees. They are the beauty bearers to a world in great need of just that. May they always be among us.