I received a gorgeous bunch of fresh flowers the other day.

I’d never had anyone buy me flowers before then. The details surrounding these flowers are fascinating at the very least but I will leave them out here. What I will say is I loved them the moment I saw them and even more when I knew they were mine. I had never seen flowers as exquisite as those. There they were, lounging beside a window and soaking in the Saturday afternoon sunlight with a charming nonchalance.
I must’ve been about fourteen-years-old when I learned the word pulchritudinous, which means exceptionally beautiful. The word sounds like it describes a corrosive substance. I was amused by the irony of a seemingly clinical description for something as subjective as aesthetic perception. Until this past Saturday, I couldn’t imagine the kind of thing which would be best described by that word.
Those flowers, those delicate purple chrysanthemums, answered a prayer I’d long forgotten I had prayed.
– Lele M