There’s a house I pass several times a day.
I stopped to say ‘Hi’ and learned that they’ve
been in the neighborhood quite awhile.
Since 1954.
They grow sunflowers each summer.
They stand at attention
guarding the rest of the garden from the traffic on the road.
I stopped to tell them how much I enjoy the flowers he plants each year and
thanked him for planting the little rays of sunshine.
We talked about the generous garden and I asked why he planted sunflowers.
He said, “Because the neighbors like them.”
The sunflowers are sort of a gauge for summer.
May – Quick, exciting start
June – Stretching for the sky
July – Blooming, yellow gold
August – sun-scorched and wilted
I enjoy almost every stage.
Except August.
I get sad that the sunflowers are done
because that means that summer is done too.
As I sat down to write of my sadness because the
sunflower show has ended,
the thought occurred to me –
there are other flowers blooming right now.
What.
There are other blooms rocking August.
The world is not devoid of flowers now that the sunflowers are gone.
And the world does not have to be devoid of enjoyment and frivolity
just because it is August.
There’s good in August too.
Let’s cultivate it and seek it.
What if I had missed the beauty of August completely?
Now that might be something to be sad about…
Searching For Kindling
Where can you cultivate good? How can you create space to seek out frivolity? For yourself. For your kids. For your significant other. For your friends. There’s good in August!
