It was very much so purposeful last year.
There is a little patch of ground that separates our patio from our driveway. It is there because some day the little hedges I planted there will be tall enough to serve as a wall. For now, I plant other stuff between those hedges as I wait. The first year it was corn. Last year it was sunflowers.
The sunflowers that I planted from tiny little seeds did OK last year. The sprouted up between those hedges and grew and grew and reached for the sky. They topped out at eight feet tall, but to be honest, they never looked all that good. Despite the fact that they had all the love and care that a plant could ever hope for, they weren't all that healthy. They never quite created that natural wall I wanted. They drooped so much they actually looked sad. Which, if you think about it, a sunflower should never look sad. But they all did. A dozen eight foot tall sunflowers all looked sad.
This year it was pure luck.
I first spotted the little weed in late spring, but for some reason, I didn't pull it. I'm sure part of the reason I left it alone was that Cody and Penny were obsessed with gnawing on it. Every time they set foot on the patio, they ran over to that little weed and chewed off a leaf or two. I figured they would manage to kill it.
But they didn't.
And then one day it suddenly sprouted up a foot overnight and I realized it wasn't a weed. It was a sunflower. Somehow one of the sad flowers from the year prior had managed to drop one lonely seed and it had found its way across the patio. It had taken hold and grown and grown, persevering even as the elements and the dogs did everything possible to destroy it.
It was neglected and it was abused, but now it stands tall and beautiful.
You better believe I'm taking it as a sign that sunnier days are about to appear out of nowhere.
