FREEWRITING FRIDAY: SUNFLOWERS
Strong and Resilient, ‘Bring me the Sunflower Crazed with the Love of Light!’
And all the hope and courage it inspires to get myself back on track
I want to be like a sunflower so that even on the darkest days I will stand tall and find the sunlight. — Unknown
Like the courageous people of Ukraine, who inspired Ellie to select this topic.
The sunflower is not only the national flower of Ukraine, it’s become the symbol of resistance against Russia. This took off when a courageous woman confronted an occupying Russian soldier in the early days of the invasion.
She handed him sunflower seeds and said, “Take these seeds and put them in your pockets so sunflowers grow when you die here,” according to the BBC’s translation.
The video, posted to Twitter by the news site UkraineWorld on Thursday, has been viewed over 8 million times.
She’s become an icon of this David and Goliath struggle. And the sunflower, proud, strong, and always facing the sun, the symbol of Ukraine’s resistance to the invaders, and the determination of a people to defend their country, no matter what.
Sunflowers grow all over Ukraine.
You see them in gardens and roadsides, as well as vast fields where they’re grown for their seeds and oil. That’s how they became the national flower. Their oil was permissible for lent by the Ukraine Orthodox Church, which encouraged people to give up meat and meat products.
What is it about the sunflower that grabs us?
After all, it’s rather awkward and gangly. It doesn’t have much of a fragrance, and there’s only one blossom per long, tall stalk. So you might stay, it’s rather stingy.
Not only that, its head gets too big for its skinny body, I mean stalk. Even though it follows the sun as it moves through the sky every day, eventually its head gets so big it droops over.
That must be why I relate to it so much!
With my kyphosis (overly curvaceous spine), my neck juts out at a funny angle, such that the weight of my head is off balance. If I don’t remember to squeeze my shoulder blades and retract my neck like a turtle, it flops forward. Which reminds me to be mindful.
But I recognize a kindred spirit.
Full of sunshine, singing a cheerful song all day long. I can’t look at those bright yellows, oranges, and golds and not smile. And think of my sister, which also cheers me up.
Sunflowers are her hands-down favorite. When she’s having a particularly rough day, I call up her local florist, who knows me on a first-name basis by now and have a big bouquet of them delivered to her workplace.
This past September, for her birthday, unbeknownst to each other, her husband and I picked out the same designer sunflower bouquet! She kept one at the clinic and brought the other home, for a doubly sun-kissed birthday blessing.
What about difficult times?
Such as right now, right?
I wish I could say, oh, just show me a sunflower or a strong Ukrainian woman wearing or carrying them as she fights for freedom.
Yes, those images brighten and inspire. But they alone may not be enough to eradicate my heaviness. Yes, it’s easy to tell myself, what have you got to complain about when women and children are dying in Ukraine?
Unfortunately, that only makes me feel sadder and guiltier. It doesn’t snap me out of whatever it is. Fortunately, I have more resources standing by for times like these.
Right now is one of those times.
First of all, because I’m tired. I woke up early and could not fall back asleep. The racing thoughts hamster got on his little wheel and started running full speed.
That happens a lot. For different reasons. Sometimes more than one.
This morning they’re all related to COVID. Our church is about to open up on Easter and I’m having second thoughts about our proposed protocols. I’m also going to visit my family next month and dreading having to wear a mask all those long hours in airports and on planes.
Here’s what helps when I get in this sort of funk.
Talking to Someone Who Listens and Supports Me
I pick this person with care. I listen and support a lot of people. They may not be the best ones to call. They may want or need ‘equal time’ at a time I don’t have it to give.
But I knew exactly who to call. She helped me sort my feelings and create a path forward to revisit our plans in a timely way. As soon as we finished talking, my breaths came slower and deeper. Which helped me with my fatigue.
Listening to Special Music
I love Chopin. So much so I have a Chopin station on Pandora. It’s my go-to soothing music. That I listen to when I write. I’m conditioned like one of Pavlov’s dogs to relax and settle in at those first opening notes.
Chopin is not the only music I listen to or that helps me shift. Favorites include Latin American folkloric music. Acapella singers like Pentatonix singing Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah. Or Andrea Bocelli singing anything, though he does a beautiful Hallelujah.
And I’m a sucker for musical soundtracks–Hamilton, The Lion King, Come from Away, and The Wiz. Just to name a few that help me shake off the blues and start dancing through my day.
Dancing is its own form of magic.
I think of it as an outside-in form of therapy. Sometimes we have a jubilant thought and burst into song or dance.
But it works the other way, too. Get me moving, get me singing, get me dancing, and I can’t stay stuck long. Right after I hung up the phone–do we still say that? Right after I pressed the red button on my iPhone to disconnect the call? No hanging up work so much better linguistically.
So right after I hung up from that reassuring call, it was time for my Zumba class. On Zoom. AKA Zoomba! Dance aerobics to Latin and Caribbean rhythms. Salsa, cumbia, cha-cha, with a little bit of hip-hop and African-based dance moves.
My teacher beams through the whole hour without missing a beat. I’m huffing and puffing along, reminding my face to smile. But my spirit always does.
Laughter is the best medicine for what ails.
Which is why I need my daily dose of Trevor Noah. He can embrace the issues of the day and find the humor in them. Like nobody’s business!
Saturday Night Live, Steven Colbert, and Randy Rainbow are close seconds. There’s even a practice called Laughter Yoga which tones our abs and enhances endorphin production. So let’s all get our ha-ha’s out!
If ever there was a plant that might evoke laughter as well as happiness, it would be the sunflower. The court jester of flowers, tireless in giving us joy.
Bring me then the plant that points to those bright Lucidites swirling up from the earth, and life itself exhaling that central breath! Bring me the sunflower crazed with the love of light. — Eugenio Montale
Thank you, Ellie Jacobson, for bringing us this fabulous freewriting prompt!
Marilyn Flower writes humor to laugh the changes she wants to see and make. She’s the author of Creative Blogging: Ninja Writers Guide to Character Development and Bucket Listers, Get Your Brave On. Clowning and improvisation strengthen her resolve during these crazy times. Follow my Sacred Foolishness and Stay in touch!