While I was out driving today through some areas where flood waters had devastated homes I noticed a few things (other than the piles of belongings)  the bushes and trees were brown on the bottom half from all the muddy waters and lack of oxygen and there were no blooming flowers.   Here is my first installment of Optimistic (thank you Mayor Karl Dean for saying this is the new word for Nashville): the Iris.  Tennessee’s state flower.  These are from my Betsy and David’s yard and while I am not a huge fan of the iris I just love the color of these.  I love the contrast of purple and gold and that the beautiful afternoon light.  

gold, purple, pale bluish green and light, light purple

softness of the iris petal, kindness and support

strength

in the light of what was, new growth and beauty emerge making it better than it was