"the sunflowers"

come with me
into the field of sunflowers.
their faces are burnished disks,
their dry spines

creak like ship masts,
their green leaves,
so heavy and many,
fill all day with the sticky

sugars of the sun.
come with me
to visit the sunflowers,
they are shy

but want to be friends;
they have wonderful stories
of when they were young -
the important weather,

the wandering crows.
don't be afraid
to ask them questions!
their bright faces,

which follow the sun,
will listen, and all
those rows of seeds -
each one a new life!

hope for a deeper acquaintance;
each of them, though it stands
in a crowd of many,
like a separate universe,

is lonely, the long work
of turning their lives
into a celebration
is not easy. come

and let us talk with those modest faces,
the simple garments of leaves,
the coarse roots in the earth
so uprightly burning.

~ mary oliver

when my friend, jill, owner of sunflower yoga studio in indiana, pa posted this beautiful photo on her facebook page, i was instantly smitten. you see, sunflowers have been coming up a lot for me recently. i have been eating sunbutter like it's going out of style. love it!! such a perfect in between massage or yoga snack for me. i've also recently switched over to using sunflower oil while giving massages as it doesn't dry my skin out like some other massage oil i've used in the past. i think i'm going to have a sunflower grow out of the top of my head soon. :)

i asked jill to enlighten me to the significance of sunflowers. her response was "this time of year, we all need a little bit of solar plexus chakra energy, and sunflowers are the best symbol i know of...inner strength, warmth, radiance...let it shine!"

i am letting my inner sunflower shine, are you?

hugs!!

image credit