A Universal Truth

There's an interesting piece in the Faith and Values section of today's Spokesman Review entitled "Strong belief in self can help conquer obstacles". Intended to be an inspirational story, I think it has an unintended darker side.

Last summer I had reached the end of the rock garden and found a tiny little plant that I could not immediately identify. I knew I didn’t plant it and Denise claimed that she didn’t either. We decided to let it continue growing until we could figure out what it was.

Weeks passed and as I made my way back to the mystery plant, it appeared to be a sunflower. It was spindly looking with a tall, skinny stalk and only one head on it. I decided to baby it along and weed around it.

As I pulled rocks from the area to get to the weeds, I noticed something unusual. The sunflower had not started where I saw the stalk begin. It actually had begun beneath a big rock and grown under and around it to reach the sun.

That’s when I realized that if a tiny little sunflower didn’t let a big rock stand it its way of developing, we too have the capability of doing the same thing. Once our environment begins to see that we believe in ourselves like that little sunflower, we can attain the same nourishment and nurturing as well.

Here's the lesson the author learned from the sunflower.

First, we need to believe in ourselves, knowing we have the capabilities in achieving our desires. The sunflower knew it had the capability to overcome its obstacle because it trusted in the Universal Truth and had faith it would succeed.

Stand tall like the sunflower and be proud of who and what you are, and the environment will begin to support you. You will find a way to go under or around your big obstacle in order to reach your desires.

Believe in yourself, trust in the Universal Truth and have faith you will succeed in overcoming obstacles are all truly inspirational themes exemplified by this sunflower. A sunflower spared the fate of the weeds he was pulling. Weeds that were just as desperately trying to stand tall, overcome obstacles, and trust in the Universal Truth and yet were so casually destroyed by his hand.

Life just wants to be. And in doing so it affects other life. Even killing it.