Shift to a Sunflower Moment

22 August 2023

The end of the traditional summer season of plenty begins to occupy spaces of back-to-school and business-as-usual. But, there has been a recent shift in perceptions, energies, and behaviors since the middle of the 2010s decade.

Walking this morning on the grass to the stone path around the house, I picked a few zucchini flowers and some small squash. Thoughts strayed from years of childhood, scholastic life, career choices in the US, overseas, trials, tribulations, triumphs, family, and friends who are still present and those yet to arrive, those who have faded from this life in one way or another. With a start, a flitting house wren hopped on the fence within my reach and tilted her head, as if to draw my attention back to the present where a perfect sunflower smiled to offer the joy of this day to me, to anyone aware enough to appreciate the moment.

While traditions surround us in a very material sort of way, they bring with them the “spirit” of ancestors, symbols of a past to which we all belong. And because space-time has been getting a fashionable update since the images of the Webb Telescope, it may be time to reassess how much each of us truly believes in spirit – that mystery that wakes us from slumber.