Winter is coming up fast and summer is becoming a distant memory and I am sitting here on a quiet November Friday listening to so I'll follow the sun. ~Lennon-McCartney and thinking of summer and summer flowers.
Is there anything that embodies cheerful radiance more than the sunflower? A brilliant emblem of summer, it stands proudly with a strength and resilience that belies its impossibly thin and fragile frame.
Sunflowers are heliotropic, having the marvelous ability to turn their heads toward the sun, tracking the warm sunshine as it moves across the sky. The center of the sunflower is actually filled with hundreds of flowers growing individually, which can become other sunflowers if planted. They are also a natural decontaminator and have been used to clean up soil at some of the world's biggest environmental disasters.
Thinking of choosing a personal emblem? Consider the sunflower. It's a reminder to stand tall. To be useful. To grow quickly. To enrich the world with the brilliance of simple happiness and know how to multiply it. And to be able to find the sunshine, wherever it may be, and reach toward it gracefully and with purpose.
