"Why the Sunflower"

Every summer I find myself watching the sunflowers.

They quietly lift their faces toward the light.

Not because someone tells them to.

Not because they are competing with the flowers around them.

Simply because they know where nourishment is found.

Nature rarely argues with its own needs.

It reaches for water when it is thirsty.

It rests in winter.

It blooms in season.

It bends with the wind instead of fighting every storm.

Somewhere along the way, many of us forgot how to listen with that same trust.

We continue long after we are exhausted.

We silence our hearts when they ask for rest.

We mistake constant movement for growth.

The sunflower gently reminds me that there is another way.

Growth is not found by ignoring what we need.

It is found by turning, little by little, toward what gives us life.