Apart from their outstanding beauty, flowers generally positively affect our environment and emotional health. When you walk into a room adorned with flowers, you get a sense of calmness and being at ease. For her Sunshine Family Volunteers project, Ms. Risa from Japan worked with her mother to create a flower arrangement video to train others on the skill.
Risa’s mother is a flower arrangement teacher and has passed on the love of creating beautiful spaces to her daughter.
“She always decorated our house with flowers, which brightened the atmosphere of our home and was very healing,” Risa reminisced.
When Risa requested her mother if they could record the ‘how-to’ video, the mother was more than thrilled to do it. The duo embarked on their first mother-daughter project, volunteering to share their beautiful skills with the world. Risa shot and edited the video while her mother designed the flower arrangements.
Noting that this was a Do-It-Yourself (DIY) kind of video, Risa considered factors that would make the project enjoyable and affordable for anyone wanting to try it out.
“I often desire to try out different things but sometimes do not when they feel too difficult or complicated to try. We, therefore, made our videos as simple as possible and put a time limit of five minutes for each one,” she added.
This being their first project, the duo faced some challenges, including flowers wilting in the process. Risa also had to do several video re-takes to ensure the images captured were great. However, they did not give up and Risa learned how to take the best videos by adjusting the brightness level or changing her shooting angles. Editing the video was also her first experience, but she enjoyed it nevertheless.
The synergy between the two taught them valuable lessons on teamwork. Risa realized that however small she deemed her skills to be, they could be just what someone else needed.
“I feel that the project improved my relationship with my mother as I could listen to her opinions while working closely with her to create one piece of work,” she said.
Sunshine Family Volunteers empowers families to cultivate peace in their homes, communities, and the world through serving together. We are glad to see how such a simple project as making a flower arrangement video has significantly contributed to our goal of strengthening families as the cornerstone of peace in the home and society.
Watch the DIY video and learn more about our SFV Program. If you have such an inspiring Sunshine Family Volunteer story to share or your family wants to start such a project, email: younshim.park@globalpeacewomen.org.