Neal and I arrived at Honeywood Farms with our Farm Bureau, Farm Passports in hand, ready to be stamped but the fields behind the store quickly became the real attraction. What was that sound on the breeze? Walk deeper! Hush Neal, the flowers are speaking! I could almost hear the whole place carrying on without us. Don’t you hear them?

Somewhere between the rows, my walking became wandering.

Let the flowers move. Let the bees work. Let your thoughts wander with them.

Sunflowers have a wonderful way of making “simple advice” seem possible: be bright, remember your roots, keep growing, spread a little happiness, and when the day turns dark, keep looking for where the light might be. Standing among them, that sounds less like a sage words and more like something the flowers have been practicing all along.

I bought a hand-picked bouquet before we started back toward the car. Along the way, a woman also leaving stopped to compliment the flowers. “Thank you so much!” I replied. Then something in me said not merely to accept the compliment but to share what had caused it. I pulled a sunflower from the bouquet and gave it to her. (I have done this before, It is easy to give a smile away!) One less flower for me. One unexpected smile added to the day.