An Inspired Thought Blooms
One Saturday afternoon, I returned from a local nursery with a carload full of plants. When I say a carload, I mean it. There was almost no space for me to sit, much less see out the windows for driving.
The nursery had just received a shipment of mock orange specimens that were in glorious bloom. Mock orange, which dates back to colonial days, was one of Thomas Jefferson’s favorites and planted throughout the gardens of Monticello. I thought it would be perfect for our own gardens as well, especially in light of our home’s architecture and setting.
As I reached down to place the root ball of the first shrub in its newly dug hole, my head amid all of its blossomed branches, I was momentarily stopped in my tracks by sunlight shining through those soft white petals and by their captivating citrus fragrance. As always in the face of nature’s charms, my mood automatically brightened.
Suddenly I thought to myself, “Wouldn’t it be amazing if there were a healthy and refreshing drink that could evoke this same feeling — a way, literally, to drink in the essence of the experience?” My wife still remembers that day when I stormed into the house, leaving a trail of dirt behind me, to tell her of my new idea.