my FirSt sUnfLoWer

I just got back from lunch with the family at my aunts home. For no special reason or occasion, accept that its Sunday. The little house has taken on many facades and cosmetic renovations over the years, but it still holds a special and sentimental place in my thoughts as the home in which I spent the first five or six most explorative years of my life. While parking my car in the driveway, the old familiar walkway to the back of the garden caught my eye, and it must have opened a door to what must be my oldest memory of a sense of adventure. This stayed with me all through the meal until I gave in to the nagging feeling and quietly made my way outside into the arms of the winter sunshine.

Just out of the kitchen door, there used to be an old tree that I never tired of scaling. While the tree no has long been removed, the vivid memory brought a smile to my lips. I still have an ever so tiny scar on my knee to prove such daring against my mothers better judgment. Making my way around to the back of the garden, a more than familiar scent all but knocked me off my feet. It smelled like.. what was that? Another gentle memory reminded me. Whatever this plant may be, I used to mash bits of its sweet smelling petals into a little sand bucket, along with splatterings of mud, and produce the most divine smelling mud cakes cum henna paste cum magic potions imaginable! Lol. What a memory! A shadow on the verandah made me turn around to see the sun and surrounding plants playing shadow puppets across the tiled floor. This place used to be swarming with ants and snails. Aah, and the snails used to be cause for immense entertainment! I was afraid of them, no doubt. But amused nonetheless! And finally, the empty spot beckoned: An open piece of ground that seemed to lay a quiet tribute to what once lay in its space.

Towering above me in my memory of two decades ago, i re-discovered a regal and staturely sunflower. My first encounter of its kind, i might add. From my mom, I soon learnt that sunflowers always turn to face the beaming sunlight. I liked the idea immediately. And that very notion convinced me that flowers and plants have personality! If anything, my friend the sunflower certainly did! A few years ago, on a journey out to the North West Province, I was delighted to see for miles and miles around us, the glorious sunflower fields with millions of these yellow heads smiling towards the sun. That was the first time I remembered my First Sunflower. And once again today. A sparklingly warm memory accompanied by an age old moral: remember to always face the sUnshine and let the glOw reach deep inside!