A gift is a light given from one person to another, and what is given with love takes on a life of its own.

Some years ago, my daughter Kayla surprised me with a beautiful orange oriental lily for Mother’s Day. Just one bloom.

I planted that single flower, and over time it flourished — a small miracle in the garden. Each year, around Mother’s Day, as if on cue, it bloomed again.

I called them “Kayla’s Lilies.” They filled my days with joy and my heart with gratitude. A radiant reminder of love taking root.

“Flowers,” said Henry Ward Beecher, “are the sweetest things God ever made and forgot to put a soul into.”

Kayla always asked about the flowers with excitement. We would count the blossoms together, celebrate their return, and cherish the abundant gift that began with a single act of love.

For every spring she was away at college — just 45 minutes down the mountain — Kayla came home on weekends with another lily to plant. I added each one beside the others, and over time, the lilies multiplied like magic — fertilized by love.

Though the garden no longer blooms, today’s rediscovery of this celebration feels like they’ve returned — radiant as ever, growing in the garden of my heart. A reminder that love, once planted, keeps blooming forever.