birth flowers · May
Lily of the Valley
May's flower is a string of white bells with a scent bigger than itself: lily of the valley — sweetness, humility, the return of happiness. Brides carry it; perfumers chase it; May simply owns it.
Language & folklore
Christian legend grew it from Mary's tears (again — she waters half this calendar) and Eve's, leaving Eden; French custom hands sprigs door-to-door every May 1st for luck; royal brides from Victoria's era on tucked it into bouquets — happiness, returning, on schedule.
The honest paragraph
Two honesties. The scent in perfumes is synthetic — the real flower guards its molecule, un-extractably. And the whole plant is genuinely poisonous: gorgeous in the vase, dangerous in the mouth — keep from children, pets and salad ambitions. May's lesson wears white: sweetness and boundaries coexist.
The cat sniffs the white bells and, wisely, only sniffs: "Beauty noted. Boundaries observed."
Flower meanings are the language of flowers and folk tradition — inherited poetry for gifts and self-portraits, not botany's opinion and not a promise.