Joy beyond description

During the last few days of CNY, while watering my plants, I noticed there was a particular plant with big leafy greens, has started to sprout white flowers ... 2 buds to be exact. We have this plant for like donkey years and it did not once grow anything before. So we were pretty surprised and delighted it has started to sprout flowers. We did not know and did not expect there would be flowers from this ordinary-looking plant, compared to our other CNY plants with bright beautiful flowers. Although the white flowers have not fully bloom yet, Mom was especially happy, she said "Sprouting flowers in CNY means got luck".

I read from an article about miraculous flowers being sprouted on a Guan Yin's golden statue in South Korea.

According to the monks in Chonggye-sa Temple, 21 threadlike stems were growing from the statue of Kuan Yin, each with a tiny white flower no bigger than the tip of a ballpoint pen. It was the first time in the 1000-year history of the monastery that flowers have blossomed which was "a delight that gives joy beyond decription."

These were flowers that bloom only once every 3000 years. Buddhist priests said the legendary flowers blossoming on the forehead of Kuan Yin The Compassionate One only appear when the 'Sage King of the Future' (Coming Buddha) comes into the world. Kuan Yin is a gentle Buddhist bodhisattva who refused to enter Nirvana (paradise) because she heard the cries of suffering humanity.

Buddhists said sighting the flowers was like witnessing the birth of Buddha. Experts said it was unthinkable that the 500-year-old statue of Kuan Yin, gilded every 3 years over the (original) woodwork, could produce growing flowers without divine intervention.

A religious expert, Dr Kenneth Ireland, said that flowers were regarded as divine in India, Japan and China and were believed to bloom only when a momentous event is about to happen.

To me, it is always a delight to see flowers sprouting anywhere, especially if it is in my own home.