Choose to be a Wallflower

I am a flower near the wall

with bright and cheerful face.

This is my choice, I say to all,

to harmonize this space.

I started thinking about the term "wallflower" and how it has such negative connotations, or it certainly did when I was a girl. And yet, the original Wallflower or Cheiranthus cheiri is a beautiful, sweet-smelling flower often growing along old rock walls or near castles, providing a lovely contrast to the sturdy stone. The figurative apparently came into use first in an 1820 work by a woman writing to describe those young ladies sitting on the wall at a dance.

But you know what? In this day and age, where women are free to ask someone else to dance rather than sit around waiting, and where women have the choice to participate or not in a party, meeting or group function, the negative energy can be overthrown.

I am reclaiming and empowering the term "wallflower" and returning it to a place of honor and beauty!

My selected definition of a wallflower?

"Someone who enhances or embellishes the scene

without choosing to participate directly."

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Photo Copyright © 2005 David Monniaux