Why “Sunflowers in Sunshowers”?

I’m sure there are people who might be wondering why my company is named Sunflowers in Sunshowers. Surely, there must be some significance?!—-Or does she just like Sunflowers?
The truth is it’s both.

You may or may not know, but I previously had a blog called Sunflowers in Sunshowers. It was a “mom and lifestyle” blog. I put that in quotations for two reasons: First, I’m not sure if I can call it that since it never really was anything—I’m not sure if anyone ever even saw it, and even if they did, there wasn’t much to see. Second, I don’t even know what a mom and lifestyle blog is. I followed some of these moms, & I thought maybe I could try to emulate what they did but I didn’t have a clue how to do it, I’m more of a fly by the seat of your pants mom. I started off with the best of intentions and ideals about how I wanted to raise my child but as soon as real motherhood hit, I went into survival mode. The truth is I struggled through the first year of motherhood and went back to work when my daughter was 7 months, even thought I could have taken a year off because I couldn’t handle not feeling good at something and feeling like I was stagnating…but that’s a story for another day. In some ways the name symbolized my growing family which started with the love between my now husband and me and the struggles of parenthood. It was also called Sunflowers in Sunshowers, because the name had—and still has—a deep, personal meaning to me, it was based on a story my husband wrote me now nearly 8 years ago—it wasn’t actually the name of the story, but a symbol within the story that has since remained a constant in my life and in our relationship. That story reminds me of a real pivotal moment in our relationship. We were having some hard times, and to be quite honest, I was having some serious doubts. At the time, I wasn’t sure if we were going to make it. We had long ago discovered that one of the best ways we communicate was through the written word and realizing that, he wrote me a story that for the first time allowed me to see myself and him through his eyes. I remember it being the first time in my life where I felt like someone really got me, I mean..he understood me at my core—who I was, how I saw myself, how I hoped others saw me. I felt like he had looked inside my soul. That story was and still is the most beautiful gift I’ve ever received. A gift perspective, a gift of hope, and a rare chance for me to see myself and us through his eyes. To this day, I feel he sometimes knows me better than I know myself. And whenever we hit the lows in our relationship, I remember that story and it carries me forward. So for me, Sunflowers in Sunshowers represents that—it represents hope and perspective.

Once I started on my journey of personal and professional development, I also started to find deeper meaning in the metaphor, which is why I decided to keep the name for this blog. I’ve really begun to embrace this metaphor as part of who I am. In my heart, I’ve always been a dreamer, an optimist, and a sensitive soul—the kind of person that thinks and feels deeply. I believe that most people are innately good and I believe one person can change the world. As well-intentioned as it may have been, there were people throughout my life who admonished me for being too gullible, idealistic, and empathetic. I know they worried that people throughout my life were going to take advantage of me or hurt me, and at times I felt like life tried to prove them right. That did happen sometimes, but I learned from it. And the lesson was not that people are untrustworthy, it was that I need to trust my intuition or that as humans we are naturally imperfect and the way through is not with judgement and shame but compassion and understanding. I’m a naturally trusting person and compassionate person, and more often than not I choose to see the good in people and the world. The more I tried to suffocate these inclinations, the more I drifted away from my core beliefs and values. It took some time to accept that this is who I am, and recognize that it wasn’t a weakness, but rather my strength. There needs to be visionaries like me in the world to balance out the cynics.

To quote Dame Helen Mirren:

“I don't think there's anything on this planet that more trumpets life that the sunflower. For me that's because of the reason behind its name. Not because it looks like the sun but because it follows the sun. During the course of the day, the head tracks the journey of the sun across the sky. A satellite dish for sunshine. Wherever light is, no matter how weak, these flowers will find it. And that's such an admirable thing. And such a lesson in life.”

This rings so true to me, and whenever stuff in life is getting me down I try to remind myself to be like the sunflower, to find that light no matter how weak and focus on that. To find the sunshine through the rain is to see past the obstacles or hardships in front of you in order to see the light—the end goal, the necessity, the lessons, and the beauty. To find things to be grateful for every day, no matter how hard that may seem. To realize that you need the sun, the rain, and the dirt to grow and to help you uncover who you really are. Find your purpose and your unique gifts and use them. Pursue them with passion. And know that even when you fall down or fail, you can get back up—no, you need to get back up and keep going! You need to keep trying and pushing forward because people need you—the world needs you. It’s in those failures and let downs that we learn. You don’t need perfection, you need real raw life—all of it—the good the bad, and the ugly. It’s all part of the process and the journey that got you where you are right now. And it’ll be part of getting you where you want to go too! If you keep pursuing growth, you will grow strong and you will thrive. When you stop and think about it, it is often in or after the sunshowers that we discover a rainbow. Rainbows are symbolic of the idea that these troubles will pass, and as long as you find that light, and stay focused on the positive, you’ll find something beautiful in your pain and/or suffering. On the other side of it, the bad stuff and the hard stuff will make you feel even more grateful for the good you have and for how far you’ve come on the journey.

So I’m asking you to find inspiration in the sunflower, channel the sunflower. It may help to think of your life like a garden and you are like the sunflower in that garden, you’re capable of outgrowing and outshining all the rest, with your deep roots, your strong stem and your sunny disposition…but in order to reach your optimal height and beauty, you need to dig deep, you need to break through the dirt to establish strong roots. You need the sunshine, as well as the rain. You need to be nourished and nurtured to flourish, pulling the weeds and composting the garbage from your life into fuel for your growth. And you need to find it in you to stand tall and shine, whatever the weather. By doing all this you, you will become your best and from there you will reap the fruits of your labour, the rewards of your life. So, my fellow sunflowers, I hope you’ll join me on this journey of growth and development, where we will find the tools, learn the habits, and develop the capabilities to grow into the best and strongest version of ourselves so that we can achieve everything we’ve always dreamed of.