The Lesson of the Weed-Sunflowers (part 2)

If you read my first post, you'll remember this:  I hated, despised, loathed these weeds!  Yet there I stood this particular morning, observing my weed, thinking about what shade of yellow I want to paint my walls, when I spotted a flash of yellow.  I squinted my eyes, not really believing what I was seeing. Meanwhile, this little voice in the back of my head says, "You have wild sunflowers!"

 

Curious, I headed outside for a closer look and sure enough, I came face to face with a sunflower! It was just tiny flashes of yellow, just barely peeking out of  a cocoon of green, and it was facing west.  Suddenly, my disgust for these monstrous weeds turned to excitement because in my ugly, unkempt backyard, I had sunflowers!   

The next morning I eagerly went to the kitchen window and looked out to see MY sunflower, now almost completely open and facing east.  That night when I returned from work the sunflower had fully bloomed and was again facing west.   

The next morning, I had two sunflowers; then three; then five; then nine; and eventually a whole backyard full!

  As I observed all of this, several thoughts came to my mind.  

Sunflowers, I've decided, are quite appropriately named - not just because they look like a cheerful sun with petals, but also because they follow the sun.  Interestingly, it isn't just the flowers that tend to follow the sun. The leaves also lean toward the sun in the morning. By afternoon, they have relaxed and look wilted in the heat of the day, but when they follow the sun, they appear vibrant and full of life.  If you are religious, the analogy is probably obvious: follow the sun/follow the Son.  If you aren't religious, there is still something (or someone) that inspires you and makes you want to be a better person.  So before you go all anti-religion on my analogy, make it work for you.  :)    

(Side note:  I discovered that it wasn't just my imagination.  They really were following the sun, and this behavior actually has a scientific name:  heliotropism.  And the scientific name for the sunflower: Helianthus - Helia for sun, and Anthus for flower.  So the big, ugly weeds-turned-sunflowers have also expanded my knowledge base!)

 

Another thing I've come to love about these sunflowers is the lesson they've taught me about judging based on appearance. They start out SO ugly (at least, I think they are ugly), the monster of all weeds.  They really are hideous in my eyes. Leave them alone for a while, though, and they become a thing of beauty.   

Remember, though:  It was always a sunflower, even long before the yellow petals begin to peek out.  I just wasn't able to see its' value until I was patient enough to experiment with it, to let it do what it was created to do.  It isn't that the plant changed.  It was my perspective that changed - and it changed because I was patient enough to wait and see what I never expected to find:  Beauty among what I perceived to be an ugly weed.

There is also a lesson to be learned here about the way we judge others, and the way we judge ourselves. We do it to strangers on the street, acquaintances, co-workers, friends, even family members.  We do it all the time ... and it is, in turn, being done to us all the time as well. We see someone as an annoying, unattractive weed, when the reality is they are a lovely & bright sunflower. We just don't wait long enough for the lovely yellow bloom underneath to peek out before we judge them as an unattractive weed to be forcefully yanked out of the garden of our lives.  Yet, if we just had a little patience, if we took time to look past outward appearances, think of all the lovely friends we could add to the garden of our lives.

A lot of people turn that harsh spotlight of judgement on themselves, too. I know I do it to myself all the time, and I also know it's depressing. If you've been critical of yourself, you know what I'm talking about. You know how worthless you feel when you are your own worst enemy. It's the easiest thing in the world to tell ourselves we are the equivalent of an ugly, ungraceful, embarrassing weed. As I had to be patient and let my sunflower bloom when it was ready, we also need to be patient with ourselves while we are growing up, or going through changes in our lives. 

When we are in the middle of challenges, we may feel like that ungainly, awkward, worthless weed. If we can just be patient with ourselves, gentle while we grow, in time we might be able to see the sunflower we truly are.