From Flower to Seed

We all love to see a flower in full bloom, to pass through the summer solstice when everything is at the height of blossom, shine, and growth.  Something coming to full fruition brings us joy. However, as summer gives way to fall, we have the chance to look for beauty in a new way.  One day I was driving in the late fall and passed a large field full of nodding, dried brown sunflower heads.  “Look!” I told my children.  “That was a big field of sunflowers!”  In his then six-year old wisdom my son said, “What do you mean WAS? It still IS a big field of sunflowers.”

Isn’t it wonderful to have our own limited sight reflected back to us by our children?  Of course it was still a field of sunflowers!  Just this slight shift in words made me aware of my bias, one that is all too common in my culture.  The message we learn is: something is what it is, when it’s at its full peak or its full potential.  Otherwise it’s somehow not quite as worthy.  We value women when they are at the peak of their reproductive years, we value our time when it is at its most productive, and we value ideas and projects when they reach their greatest outwardly manifestation.

But we are missing out when we look at life this way.

In my practice I see women who are in their mid-seventies and never more beautiful, growing internally and learning to finally feel good in their bodies.  I also see women who are so burned out from rushing around and pushing themselves constantly to live up to the expectations they feel from the world.  They are struggling be at the top of their profession, to be the perfect mother, to look like they’re ten years younger, and to keep everyone around them happy. These may be the “full-flowering” years for them, and yet they’re exhausted and stressed.  And likely dealing with a chronic illness due to it all.

We can certainly use herbal medicines to support us during these different stages.  But it’s also helpful to take time to be with and observe nature.  Plants and trees can remind us to honor all the stages in a life cycle.  There is no growth without rest, no life without death.  If we are living a creative life, we realize that our fallow times, when things go underground, are essential to producing the times of full fruit.  The poems and paintings, the inventions, the new ideas need time to germinate while we are quiet, watch, and listen.  If we don't give ourselves time to rest and regenerate, our bodies will find a way to let us know by breaking down.  And still, we often do not or cannnot allow ourselves the time to heal.

It is a task and a practice to continually remind ourselves and each other—yes, it is a field of sunflowers, even on a gray day in November.  In fact, those seeds carried off by hungry birds, those dried leaves feeding the soil, are as essential and rich in beauty as the bright yellow flower.  Of which they will give birth to again when the time is right.

photo credit: ed_leszczynskl