More Sunflowers

I find comfort in contemplating the sunflowers. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

More time than usual has passed since I last posted a column here at Whisperia. Since that time, I’ve struggled with both writing and painting. After creating various paintings of sunflowers in May, I thought I should move on to other subjects. Yet, I became stuck. As I struggled, wrestling with other matters while trying to paint other subjects, I was like one stuck in quicksand. I struggled to “produce.” The more I struggled, the deeper I sank until production was impossible.

I began writing several articles. Yet, I didn’t have the necessary sense of release I require within myself to move forward with publication. As some of you who have been readers here since Whisperia’s inception may remember, I only desire to publish articles and art for which I receive a “go-ahead” or that passes the test of my “I-filter.” (For more on this, see “A Whispered Hello,” from April 24, 2023, at the end of this article.)

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I had to become very still. I had to go within. That is where and when I discovered that the sunflowers were not finished with me. They still had more to tell me...

Strangely, after thinking I’d moved on from painting sunflowers, I began a mixed media work about - sunflowers!

Mixed media, by K. M. Anderson

Each day, as I walk around our yard and the neighborhood, I encounter life. It is everywhere. Everything is alive. Everything has consciousness. The trees, the grasses, the flowers, the birds, the spiders, the ants, the dragonflies, the butterflies, the squirrels, the clouds, the rain, the stars, the moon, the sun, and even the air - to name just a few - are all alive. They are all conscious.

In the absence of consciousness, life is absent. Where there is life, there is consciousness.

This is what the sunflowers have been reiterating to me. Whether beneath cloudy skies or beneath the shining sun, they radiate a joy in life. In their brilliance of color they happily shout, “Look at us! We’re alive!”

All photos, K. M. Anderson

So, I’ve continued looking at them. In fact, they’ve seemed quite determined to capture my attention. They have arrested my gaze and I’ve been unable to look elsewhere. A gorgeous little group has grown and bloomed just beyond our front door where I cannot fail to meet them each and every time I step outside. They lept to life just before the gate of our garden. We didn’t purposefully plant them there. These must have sprung from seeds the birds left behind on the ground. (As you may know, we feed birds here and, to do so, we usually scatter sunflower seeds.)

The sunflowers continue to excitedly tell me that Earth is alive. She is conscious. And, She is faithful. She carries out Her missions each day, each month, each season, each year.

Let’s acknowledge Her faithfulness, Her consciousness, and Her conscientiousness in bringing forth life each spring; in all that blooms during summer; with all that’s harvested each autumn; and in all that rests during each winter and readies itself to begin anew.

How can we acknowledge Her? How can we acknowledge and affirm life?

I suppose there must be endless ways in which to do so. The sunflowers have shown me one way. They nod at me with their brilliant faces, and by doing so, they acknowledge me. They’ve taught me that we may “nod” to Earth in acknowledgement, too.

In taking notice of Her and the myriad gifts She bestows upon us, we can express our gratitude to Her. In recognizing Her, in taking moments to reflect upon the genuine wonders She holds and brings forth, we validate our very selves.

For, are we not one with Her?

I encourage anyone who reads this to take just a moment to go within. Be still. Picture and imagine just one thing. Then, thank Earth for that one thing. Perhaps, we will thank Her for the meal we just ate; perhaps, for a glass of water we drank; perhaps, for an animal companion; perhaps, for the grass beneath our feet; perhaps, for the sky overhead; perhaps, for a bloom alongside the road we traveled; perhaps, for the respite we found in the shade of a tree; perhaps, for a sunflower.

Until next time,

K. M. Anderson

PhD, Metaphysics

PhD, Spiritual Counseling

Whisperia