I love sunflowers. Not only are they big and bright, but they have a particular talent that I admire. It’s called heliotropism and it translates to ‘sun tracking’. In other words, it means that they follow the sun. When I lived in Homestead, Florida in the early 1990’s, these beautiful stalks with their vibrant faces lined the fence around the back yard. I would watch with fascination as they soaked up the rays and was determined to emulate them. All these years later, I would like to think I do.

Last night, I watched the film Wild– starring Reese Witherspoon as Cheryl Strayed and Laura Dern as her mother Bobbi whose devastating loss sends the young woman on a 1000 mile journey on the Pacific Crest Trail and a lifelong quest to ‘become the woman her mother raised her to be’. Along the way, she experiences terror and triumph and much of the story is revealed in flashback. In one memory, Dern’s character is singing and dancing around the kitchen, much to the bewilderment of her daughter. She wondered how her mother could possibly be happy, when she had married a man who was an abusive alcoholic, from whom they had fled; now at a time when both of them were working as waitresses while going to school, living in a house that was falling apart.

Cheryl asks, “Why are you happy?  We have nothing,” to which her mother replies  “We’re rich in love.” ”

What part of it do you not get? “, demands Cheryl

“There’s nothing I don’t get. If there’s one thing I can teach you, it’s how to find your best self and when you find your best self, how to hold onto it for dear life.”

This, to me is the essence of the sunflower. Dern’s Bobbie knows where the darkness exists, since she survived it, with her sanity intact. She also knows that, in her best ‘Annie-esque’  sensibilities “the sun’ll come out tomorrow.” That is the direction to which she turns. That is the direction to which I turn, when the shadow lingers behind me. Over the years, I have had cause, like Cheryl, to be skeptical and incredulous that people might feel happy in spite of their challenges. These days, I am certain that they, and I are happy BECAUSE of them. They have been the fertilizer that has helped the sun flowers to blossom and grow.