“Sunflowers end up facing the sun, but they go through a lot of dirt to get there”

Sunflowers are, without a doubt, my favorite flower. They’re bright, sturdy, beautiful, and bear fruit in the form of delicious and plentiful seeds. Sunflowers signify the beginning of autumn—peaking their gorgeous, golden blooms in mid September, making the end of summer a little less bitter.

Andy and I have started the tradition of growing our own sunflowers in a row along our property line. Last year, we even got to use some of our homegrown sunflowers as decoration in our September wedding.

A couple of weeks ago, we were on our way to pick up a pair of ducks for our pond. It was four days before our one year wedding anniversary. As we were driving along, a large cluster of yellow caught my eyes. I double-took, and to my delight, saw an entire field full of sunflowers! Not even a minute later, and another one. And another, and another! I couldn’t believe it. I’ve lived in this area for over 21 years and have never seen anything like it. We have corn, soybeans, and winter wheat. Not rolling fields of sunflowers. Over the next couple of days, I noticed more and more sunflower fields “popping up” everywhere. It has been bringing me so much joy and reminiscence of our sunflower wedding exactly one year prior.

This past spring was a brutal one. I read something somewhere saying that it was the “wettest spring in history,” at least in our area. I’m not sure if that is 100% true, but I do know that it was wet—so wet and muddy that farmers were unable to plant their usual crop of corn and soybeans. A local farmer who has been farming these fields for 45+ years said this has never happened before. Thankfully, farmers’ insurance companies cover their loss, so long as the farmers plant a “preservation” crop—a mixture of seeds including sunflowers, peas, buckwheat, radishes, and more, to help preserve and enrich the soil until they can re-attempt to plant their normal crop next year. I don’t know about you, but I’d be fine with a wet spring every year if it meant sunflower fields forever :)

As I said above, sunflowers are my favorite flower. They’re bright, sturdy, beautiful, and bear fruit. I aspire to be like the sunflower—bright, bold, strong and sturdy; a shining light in this glum world. Radiating joy to those around me. Being strong and standing my ground when the storms try to rock me. The sunflower is beautiful to look at, but that’s not even the best part. It takes time, but when you allow it to ripen, the sunflower bears seeds, blessing those lucky enough to get a taste. I’ve got a ways to go, but I pray that I will ripen over time and be a blessing to those around me xx