Buy flowers for yourself, just because
I've been trying to think about when I started buying flowers for myself. I remember when I was at uni, looking longingly at the flowers in the supermarket but walking straight past and never deciding to buy them. Flowers, I thought, were something that someone else bought for you, a gift - flowers for Mother's Day, flowers from someone who loves you at Valentines Day, flowers to send condolences. I could treat myself to a coffee, new clothes, or a fancy meal out but flowers, no, they were something to receieve or to give.
It was only when I had left uni and moved into my first post-uni house share that I first bought myself flowers - a small bunch of peach carnations. I remember it well because at the time it really felt like the ultimate indulgence. They sat in a vase in my tiny bedroom and they were just for me. But at the back of my mind I still thought...but what if someone asks who bought them for me. I was embarrassed to explain that I had bought them for myself.
Even just a few years ago, I was surprised when a friend told me that she bought flowers from a florist every week because she loved nothing more than having flowers in her house and she enjoyed the process of choosing something different every week, getting them gift wrapped and treating herself. She explained to me that the flowers gave her so much pleasure, why wait for someone else to buy them for her.
And so, I encourage you all to buy yourselves flowers, if you can and if you want to, as an act of self-love and just because. And to buy the flowers that you like, whether that's a bunch of roses from the supermarket or a fancy arrangement from your local florist. Or even send yourself flowers and maybe a box of chocolates while your at it. Flowers are lovely to receive but you don't need to drop hints in February or complain that your other half never buys them for you. Buy yourself flowers if you love them, put them on your kitchen table or by you bed, fill your house with that beautiful scent and if anyone asks, explain with pride that you bought them for yourself because you deserved them.
And if you know someone else who also looks longingly at flowers as they pass them in the supermarket but never chooses them for themselves, treat them to a bunch sometime, and pass on this message of buying flowers for yourself, just because.