One Million Tiny Things

Hyacinth

Dear Coral,
Did you know that hyacinths are flowers often given as a sign of encouragement for games to wish competitors the best.
I'm sure you found my encouragement for your tournament on top of this envelope.

Go lions!

Did I do that right? I know I'm not the most sporty person. Okay, okay, I'm probably the least sporty person you know. I can't even remember the last time I went near a ball. In my defence though, we had our finals, and unlike certain people (*cough* you *cough*) I actually care about my grades.

But hey, books matter for me, throwing a ball around matters to you. And we're cool about that.

Because, let's face it, it would take a miracle for you to crack open a book and it would take the entirety of heaven to come down for me to learn baseball.

Remember last summer, I was failing P.E and my teachers were warning me about the status of my A.P classes if I was failing a subject. You tried to teach me how to play. You made it seem so simple. Just hit the oncoming ball with the bat. But the second I tried, the ball hit me on the face. You still laugh about that.

And then, just last week, I was helping you with your math home. I was minutes away from tearing my hair out when you kept messing up each and every problem. By the time we finished your assignment, I'd had two breakdowns, screamed at you more times than I can count and almost had a heart attack.

But, hey, that's why we are best friends, right? Because we help each other out. So, I'm definitely standing in the front bleachers of the stadium cheering you on.

Back to my original point, did you like the flowers? I got them from Grumpy Gwen's house and ran off before she could come out shaking her walking stick and yelling "Get off my lawn, you nitpick!"

I remember that one holiday when we little, we wanted money to buy new bicycles. We had the genius idea of having a flower sale but since neither of us had very large gardens, we came up sparse of flowers. You wanted to break into Gwen's garden and steal flowers and I can't remember why, but I went along with your plan.

We got peonies, hyacinths, red roses, white roses, yellow roses, dandelions, daisies and so much more. But then, all of a sudden Grumpy Gwen came our way like a fast flying, out of control bat. In her long black dress and little hat paired with the archaic walking stick and pointy umbrella, she looked straight out of a cartoon.

She came up to us, scolded us for god-knows how long, then told us to keep the picked flowers because we couldn't very well plant them back.

After that, she pulled out these long sharp gardening scissors, and pointed them right at you. You let out this strangled scream before stumbling onto me and pushing us both into Mrs. Gwen's compost pile.

She thought that was a hoot and let out this long witch laugh while hitting her umbrella on the ground because all she was going to do with the scissors was teach us how to actually cut flowers.

When we finally got back up, she ushered us into her dusty, creepy, antiquated cottage and offered us a green coloured tea which looked more like a slurpy witch potion.

She then preceded to explain all the meanings and uses of the flowers we picked.

Peonies symbolise romance, good fortune, a happy relationship and compassion.

Yellow roses could be for either friendship or envy and greed.

Red roses obviously show love.

White roses imply purity and innocence.

Lavender introduces devotion and serenity.

Dandelions represent hope, love and happiness.

Daisies could suggest new beginnings.

And then Hyacinths, a beautiful flower made from a story of tragedy. In Greek mythology, Apollo, the god of the sun and Zephyr, the god of the west wind, competed for the affections of a young boy, Hyakinthos. Apollo was teaching Hyakinthos how to throw a discus when Zephyr who was overtaken by jealousy, blew a gust of wind to Apollo, sending the discus back towards Hyakinthos. The discus hit the youth and killed him instantly.

While purple hyacinths symbolised jealousy, the white flower showed that goodwill between competitors was important. It was a flower considered special in games and tournaments.

So here is my silent prayer of hope to you. I wish you have the best game you could ever have.

Lots of love,
-Camryn-