Police, Peonies, and Patience

Sometimes in life there are events that are inexplicable.  Things that defy reason, understanding, and even explanation!

I personally love those times in life.  The times when you realize how tiny you are in this big universe of ours and that sometimes you just have to stop for a moment and take your finger off the tip of the world and realize that it won't go spinning out of control, but instead, it will continue to revolve with a calming rhythm.

Yesterday was one of those days.  I was at the grocery store, minding my own business, buying the "stuff" we all buy from week to week.  My cart was full of organic veggies and fruits, and I was placing my order at the deli counter when my phone rang.

It was a friend and real estate agent who had gone out to take photos of a rental property my siblings and I own in preparation for maybe selling it.  She told me that the back door of the house was wide open!  I knew this couldn't be true, the back door would never be left open for any reason unless someone was home, which they were not!

I immediately headed over to the house, cell phone in hand ready to dial 911 and call the police.  Mentally preparing to find the broken windows, and stolen property,  I then realized that I didn't have my set of keys to the property, and I had to phone my son to meet me since I had asked the agent to lock and close the door.

I got to the house in about 10 minutes time and either stupidly or bravely walked around to the back of the house and peered into the window.  Much to my relief everything was as it should be, nothing had been disturbed, and all was right with the world.  

Except for one thing...sitting on the kitchen table was a vase, and not just any vase but a pretty cut crystal vase.  Now that may not sound that exciting to you, but this wasn't any ordinary vase.  It was an exact match of two other vases I had just recently seen at the home of my mother's dear friend who is the florist who will be doing the flowers for the wedding of my friend J's daughter in just a few weeks.  

Ok, is this story still not sounding very exciting to you?!  Well, when I had visited the florist just a few days before, we had gone through all of her containers trying to find just the right vases to use for Katy's wedding.  She has lots of containers, but none were what we were looking for to create the romantic, vintage feel that the bride was hoping for.  We did find "2" tall vases that would work, but we needed 3 tall vases and 3 shorter vases.  There were plenty of short ones, and we were so disappointed that we couldn't find just 1 more tall one to match those other 2.

Are you with me here...the vase that was on the kitchen table was an EXACT match of those vases.  And I've never seen vases like them anywhere, I had no idea that it even existed until that very moment when I saw it through the window as I peered inside to make sure that no one had broken in to the house!  My heart went from racing at the thought of a breaking and entering to the thrill of finding a matching vase!  And the other really scary or exciting part was that there were also two smaller vases on that table, and those matched the smaller vases we had planned to use!

Now, if you knew my mother, you would know that she was pretty proud of herself for leading me to that vase.  Even though she's been gone from us for years, she was making sure that Katy had the "look" she wanted for her wedding, which is so like my mother!  And when I called to tell my friend J about my find, she said, "between your mother and my father (who is also deceased)...", meaning that both of our deceased parents had a hand in this miraculous little find.

You see, J's father was a police detective, and here's another little secret about me.  I'm what you might call a woman with badge envy.  Yup, I once applied to be a police officer in my younger years but then changed my mind.  But although I don't feel the need to carry a gun and flash a badge like I did when I was younger, I do have a propensity for all things police like!  So J's father knew that a breaking and entering would get me where I needed to be, that I wouldn't wait for the real police and would head straight for that back door.  And my mother knew that by placing that vase right where I could see it, that I would find the perfect vase for Katy's wedding!  

The vase was one of the things that we had pulled down from that house's attic just a week ago, but I never remember seeing it and none of us chose to take it home with us, when we had taken so many other things.  So there it sat, waiting to be discovered.

I'm sure you're wondering where peonies fit in to this story.  Well, Katy wants peonies at her wedding and if you've checked the price of peonies, even wholesale, lately you'll find that they are very expensive!  I have lots of them waiting to bloom in my front flower bed.  So Mom, and Mr. M, if you're listening....thanks for the vase, and could you see about timing these blooms perfectly for Katy's wedding please?!  Thanks xoxo!