Daffodils are my favorite flower. My grandmother grew them, so they remind me of her and my childhood, especially the long summer weeks she and I spent together.

This time of year, I have the incredible luxury of watching several varieties of daffodils grow right outside my door, which means that these beautiful flowers, memory laden, find their way inside my home almost every day.

The association with memories is a constant theme with so many of the favorite things with which we surround ourselves, whether it’s treasured family photos or a quilt passed down from generations past. Intuitively, we seek out objects and artwork that have meaning, connection, and transcendence for us. For me, the color yellow or the image of a daffodil transports me in time, the same way a torn page from my favorite travel book to Italy does.

Oscar Wilde wrote, “Memory is the diary that we all carry about with us.” My glass vase with daffodils serves as a bookmark in my own personal diary of memories.

It isn’t the things that make a home; what makes a home is the loving spirit in which those things are gathered. In the process of gathering, we happily re-connect with the people and times that have made us who we are today.