Just wanted to wish you all a very Happy Valentine’s Day! Remember fondly how Katie recently made gift bags with beautifully artistic, handmade labels for the folks who were helping her and other loved ones. Scented soaps and lotions were a joy for Katie to shop for, as she had an idea to start a business doing fragrances, oils and lotions, that she never got to fulfill. If you visited Katie at home, or even in the hospital during brief stays, you would smell the wonderful scents of the oils she was diffusing. And not to mention her wonderful collection of perfumes that she sometimes layered to have unique combinations.
So it is appropriate that today we share and smell flowers, candles and chocolates… and remember the love that Katie had for all around her, and we have for her still in our hearts. I have a couple of the orchids from Katie’s house, and it is heartwarming to see one of them starting to bloom again. Like the cycles of life, flowers might remind us that blooms may fade or drop, but their beauty will come back again and renew us with reflections of the loves in our lives. As well they remind us that while life’s blooms are visible to us, it is important to consciously appreciate the symbols of love that run throughout our lives.
May you today feel truly loved, by Katie and by all of us here — and if needed may you take a moment to be soak in and smell the love around you. Make sure to pause to appreciate the loving impacts you are making for others, and may we all support each other in letting our little lights shine, our flowers bloom. Our lights may dim, but like flowers, we will always bloom again and bring joy to those around us and ourselves. Katie taught us all so many important lessons.
Together, we are like a fine estate garden, each of us flowers and lights, each beautiful in our own rights. Together, we are a wonderful symphony of colors, a layering of perfumes, and a million candles shining brightly helping guide each other along our paths.
I leave you with the newly budding flowers forming on one of Katie’s orchids. May your flowers, and little lights, shine in the sunlight of the love that guides us all.
Happy Valentine’s Day – Katie’s Orchids blooming again…
For Katie, smell and appreciate a flower today (or this week), and drink in it’s aroma and love. Happy Valentine’s Day to you all!
Peace and bright love to you,
Ashby
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The Life of Katie K... 
I am always amazed by your ability to be spiritual,( I guess you would call it) and to hook into something positive, something loving, some way that memories of Katie nourish you. Love you and am so grateful for you Ashby.
Thank you Tam! I do still struggle with missing Katie, but also try and focus on the love that she was and still is for us. She taught me (and all of us) alot with how she lived amidst adversity. And I have to remind myself to appreciate each moment more, as she did. Grateful for you too, Tam! Let’s all lean on each other and feel more of the love.
I am surrounded today by many beautiful flowers in Kauai. Gardens are another way that I remember Katie- and her joy in tending her own garden. Thanks for all the love, poetry and inspiration, Ashby. Happy Valentines day.
Thanks Holly! Didn’t even think about Katie’s love of gardening also. She tended to all of us around her like she did her flowers and plants – lots of love and light. Have a good time in Kauai!
Happy Valentine’s Day, Ashby. Somehow you bring Katie’s spirit back into all of the lives
of the people she loved and who loved her. Thank you!
Thanks Kitty! Happy Valentine’s Day to you as well. Just Katie’s lessons that am trying to keep close, and in turn keeping her close.