Sunflower Sentimentality

Reaching towards the sky,

I feel the sun’s rays,

It warms my heart

And brightens up my day.

I have always loved sunflowers. The simplistic look and beauty of the flower encapsulates the love of nature God brings to this earth.

My love affair with them started as a child. My father had a garden up the two terraced hills in our backyard. It seemed, back then, way up there, away from the house that is was  closer to the clouds and heaven. He would go up there to work and I would watch him, translation: get in the way I am certain! Kids just do that, the intention to help is appreciated but often times, delays what you are trying to do.

In the back of the garden were some sunflower seeds I had planted. I thought they’d died because there were no signs of life. Then slowly but surely, the stems started to grow. They flourished back there even when other vegetables in that garden were not showing signs of life! It wasn’t that long before they were tall and blooming. They seemed to be reaching for the sun, with their faces turned upwards. How can you look at a sunflower in full bloom and not feel happy inside?  That is exactly how those flowers affected me, even as a small kid. 

Things changed when the flowers had visible seeds. This occurred a month or longer after they

bloomed. Some of the success of the seeds thriving is due to the pollination process, thus bees are needed. Hence, there was always a bee swarming around the sunflowers in the back of the yard making it somewhat treacherous, if you are slightly allergic to be stings, to stand right by them for a long period of time. So I would stand back and enjoy their splendor.

Sunflower seeds are considered ripe when the flower turns yellow and the seeds in the center begin to turn brown. That is about the time the birds descended on my sunflower plants! I never realized we had so many birds around till then. They flew from everywhere and I was certain some were from miles away. I told myself they had to be because they were so plentiful in number.

The birds would pick on the seeds unmercifully and what was left was nothing of the picture of

vibrancy originally seen. My mood would shift from elation at the blooming to dismal for the lack of the color and beauty of the flower. I would quickly forget that the blooms would be back and just stare at them with sadness inside pondering the possibility of them not blooming again.

I learned from this beautiful flower that even plants strive to reach the sky, not just little girls.

I learned that bees and birds are part of nature’s magic. They each played a part in the growth of the flower as the birds dropped seeds nearby which sometimes grew to be another sunflower. Sunflowers eventually became much more numerous that my two single plants  

 

I saw, represented in this flower, the need for sunlight and hopeful positive thinking. Nature always comes back around. God makes certain of it.

I learned also that some people thought of the gangling plant as a weed, a nuisance, just like some people see children. But the beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.

May you find in nature, perhaps with a gaze of a sunflower, proof that God is waiting for you to reach up to him before you can flourish.