Hi, I’m Naomi and I’m the founder of Little Flourish.
Little Flourish has been formed due to a myriad of life experiences ranging from my many different educational choices as well as the ups and downs of my personal life. Every single element of my ‘bouncing-from-one-thing-to-another’ further education has brought a vital aspect to this business. At the time, I felt lost and confused and frustrated not knowing which path to follow or focus on, but I can now see how my passions for all these different things have been brought together under the umbrella of ‘Little Flourish’. I am so grateful for that. And believe it or not, I am so grateful for the tough times I’ve endured as they too have been gifts in the formation of Little Flourish and of who I am today.
It’s important to me that I share a little of this, as through this transparency, I hope that Little Flourish, what it means, what its aims are and why we do what we do, will be totally understood.
I was blessed with a childhood immersed in the beautiful British countryside. My family are real advocates of the natural world, in particular my Uncle JJ. His love of all things botanical, how he looked at and talked about plants was always a visceral experience for me; I could feel his passion and love of the natural world through to my core and could plainly see how much peace and joy it brought him. My mother too taught me to look further and see things that others may have passed by. I learnt to look deeper and to lose myself in the beauty around me. It would be here that I could always find peace and feel connected to something greater and go beyond any pain or difficulty I may have felt.
Fast forward on to my adult life and I’m a mum of two very young boys going through personal difficulty which ultimately would lead to a painfully destructive separation and divorce. As well as this, and in the midst of a long divorce process, I suffered a near death experience. An electric shock whilst on holiday in Jamaica tore my carotid artery and I suffered a stroke, heart damage and rhabdomyolysis (rapid muscle breakdowns from trauma that can lead to kidney failure and death). My children were not with me at the time and I was terrified of leaving them. PTSD followed both of these life traumas and it took years to work through them. The support of agencies and wonderfully kind people around us helped a huge amount, but aside from the this, I realised that anytime I was immersed in the natural world, absorbed in the beauty of the flowers, plants, trees around me I would feel such connection, peace, contentment and calmness. Whenever I collected flowers from the hedgerows or gardens and arranged huge grand arrangements or sweet little posies, my heart would sing; I would forget any pain or any worry of the moment. It would take me out of myself and connect me to something beyond my own existence. I would be in awe of the beauty of the natural world and feel so blessed to be a part of it. In short, this is what we know as ‘mindfulness’ and we can practice this in any part of our daily lives but to practice it through a connection to the natural world, in my opinion adds another powerful dimension. We become mindful of our place in amongst the beauty of the natural world and with this comes humility and gratitude.
Flowers and plants were an avenue for me to be creative. Unlike with painting, where I could find myself being my own worst critic, working with flowers was completely different. Flowers are gifts from nature. We do not own them and no matter what we do with them, their own beauty and uniqueness shines through.
This is true of us as well. We are all creative beings. We are all beautiful and we are all unique. I believe that being creative with nature’s gifts in a welcoming, safe and inclusive space can bring us beautifully empowering experiences.
I hope to be able to share this with many of you in the not to distant future.