Hazel Davies

As one of seven children, I am the daughter of a horticulturist nurseryman and of the greatest and most wondrous mum in the whole world. My favorite place as a child was on top of the potting mix pile. I suppose I have had green thumbs and dirt under my fingernails from a very early age.

It was on the potting mix pile that I pondered about what my Sunday school teacher had said about God, where I told him how much I loved Him and where I retreated to where I was in trouble, which was often!!! I was the loudest and naughtiest of the clan and earned the nickname “Weasel”, which I took as a compliment because the weasels in my favorite story book had very nice faces and seemed to get away with just about anything!

Another reason that you might have found me on the aforementioned pile was because I was in trouble for picking my father's prize blossoms and arranging them in my mother's freshly sterilized jam jars!

Then one day my mother gave me a book. It was called "The Gift of Flowers" and featured a woman who was paralyzed down one side from a stroke. She arranged flowers as gifts for people in the different journeys of their lives both happy and sad. She believed that God had given her this talent to share with others. These colorful little collections seemed to have power all of their own. I was taken hook, line and sinker.

From then on I was on a mission to discover just how powerful they were. Could they provide cover for a messy bedroom, undone homework, squabbles with my brother? A momentary distraction could go a long way in a crowded household!

Church on Sunday was always a bonus. I could sit for a whole hour and drool over blossoms resting against the old English oak alter carvings. I begged to go on the roster but was informed that it would be more practical if I waited till I was tall enough to reach the communion table!

Time passed, I practiced, I studied, and I copied the lady in Dad's shop who wired flowers for weddings. I memorized flower names and sat glued to “In Your Garden” on the ABC. At night I curled up with “What Flower is That?” In short I became a flower maniac. At16 I wired my first wedding bouquet. I would be unable to say how many hundreds of weddings I have decorated since that day. I alter went o to study commercial floristry at UTS Sydney, majoring in weddings and events and was awarded top student in construction and design and the Koch award for excellence in design.

My first real job was as florist to Sydney Opera House where I worked under an Ikebana master. I soon launched Lilies of the Field and began practicing from home as well as working in other shops and picking up some teaching work along the way. I have had the privilege of arranging flowers for queens, princes, prime misters and many celebrities. Currently I am a TAFE teacher at the School of Floristry at Weston CIT. I also practice by appointment from home, and work part time in a leading Canberra design studio. In all of this I'm a wife to Owen and mother to our four priceless treasures we put up with having a mother who is blooming well not normal. I'm sure they have considered parent-rearing classes!

On a daily basis floristry takes me into the holy of holies in people's lives: births, deaths, marriages, passions, anniversaries, celebrations, and the red-letter days. I help them speak what can't be expressed. I am a purveyor of emotion.

The symbolic floristry I do from time to time at St. James stems from my love of the theatre and my work alongside Ikebanists who design for contemplation and message. I believe that we can receive the truth of the word of God through many creative pathways. The avenues of creative arts are powerful and often remembered long after the spoken word is forgotten. When the Lord Jesus said, “Consider the lilies of the field…” He was using the local blossoms to declare the everlasting love of our Heavenly Father and creator. When I am arranging flowers I am connecting people with their God and each other.

An old lady once prayed for me and had a vision. The picture she gave me forms the foundation of all I do in floral design. She saw me in a vast field of flowers. Long files of people were continually streaming past and I was giving them flowers and speaking to them. As people departed they took with them a piece of the character of God. It was a sunny day and God was smiling.

Each of us, whether we realize it or not, is uniquely equipped with special talents, which are designed for the building up of God's church. We are commanded to discover and use them.

The only way I can offer God's touch to people and keep this gift alive is if I am knowing Him and in fellowship with Him. I am a very broken and wacky pot but He always finds fresh ways to lure me down from the potting mix pile and set my feet on the rock of His steadfast love.

Easter 2006 "Taking a fence"