Sunflowers and the Circle of Life

 Stopped by my little community garden plot today. Many crops are faded, but I still have some peppers, corn, kale and pumpkins. My sunflowers are bowing their heads as though in mourning that the sun is setting earlier and the days are growing cooler. One of the heads had fallen to the ground and split; so I carried it home. It's carefully tucked away in a paper bag until it completely dries. Then I'll remove the seeds, soak them in salt water, and roast them.

My sunflowers make me think of elderly friends and family. For most of their lives they look happily toward the sun, absorbing all of the goodness of life. Then toward the end, their backs become bent and they begin looking downward to the earth from whence they came...knowing that sometime soon they will be planted  in the rich dark earth, until resurrection brings them once again into the sun's (Son's) glorious light.

And so goes the circle of life.

 photo is from the National Sunflower Assn. photo gallery.

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