Sunflowers

"Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow.
It's what sunflowers do."
Helen Keller

Sunflower power! Plant a sunflower in your heart! Look on the sunny side of life! Sometimes having a big head is good...ask any sunflower! Worshipped by the Aztecs, this glorious simple joy that grows in my backyard has been around for a long, long time! European folklore holds that this beauty makes wishes come true.....pick a flower at sunset, make a wish...and by the time the sun comes around again, your wish will come true! Some say that a sunflower planted in your yard will bring you luck! Some say that if you want to know the truth about a situation, sleep with a sunflower under your bed! Sunflower seeds have been used for medicinal purposes since the 16th century.....for bronchitis, coughs, colds...as a diuretic...and in some cultures as a supplement to help a woman conceive! (I'm not planning on trying sunflower seeds for ANY of those reasons!) As for me...sunflowers are the yellow in the mosaic I call fall. They herald the changing seasons.....they bloom along the roadside and spread like nomads throughout the bean fields....heads bobbing and sunny faces turned to the sun. The poets call them sunlit, the farmers call them weeds....but no matter what you call them, it's hard to pass a field...or vase of sunflowers without stopping to take a look...and smile. They radiant happiness in bright yellow....a simple joy growing in my own backyard!