Life at the beach is my favorite.  I find myself taking deep breaths.  Sigh. There is something about the sound of the ocean, the energy in the air, and the vision of the water as it continuously touches the land with a variety of strokes.  I know the science behind the ions and it certainly resonates with me.  I like the way it feels.  I like the feeling of anticipating a swim in the ocean.  I love the bouyancy of salt.  Swimming in the ocean gives me the feeling of vastness and freedom.  After pushing the water around all you have to do is lean into surface tension with arms and legs spread to rest gloriously looking at the blue that surrounds you.  Life is a beach.  It is warm sand between my toes.  It's the resistance of pushing the sand beneath you so you can make your way to the water.  Going to the beach is not just for vacation time.  I spend time in my mind every day going to the beach.  And when my physical body gets to go there too, it's all the better.

When the opportunity arises and your choice is to go through and into - what do you do?  You can think it through.  That is what I was taught to do.  It's one strategy.  One that uses the left side of the brain, the part of the brain that is logical.  It can think about the pros and cons of a situation.  This will help you to know what you want.  Or sometimes you figure out what you don't want and that is a way to go towards what you do want.  That is the purpose of darkness in your life, weither that be a situation, a person, or an object.  When you use your thinking to discern that you don't want whatever it is, that thinking leads you to go for what you do want.  There is also another approach.  You can go into.  Into what?  Go into how it feels.  Physically feel into the words, the situation, the opportunity.  How does it resonate with your body when you think?  Feeling is an indication that the heart is sending you messages.  These messages aren't as clear cut as words but given time and practice you'll learn to have confidence in going with a feeling instead of a master plan designed in the mind.  This way of being uses the right brain.  It is our source for creativity.  To honor this means of knowledge is to venture on a path less understood by the masses.  However, those who have embraced the feelings and innate guidance that is available to everyone have found this knowing surpasses understanding at times only to be fully understood after taking this leap into the faith within.

Let me introduce you to this year's portraits of the Ladies of the Sun, flowers known as Sunflowers.  Maybe it's the yellow that brings such joy to my face when I see them.  Maybe it's a root connection to the state of Kansas that embraces these beautiful plants to my heart.  Perhaps the delicate nature of the petals and the way they expand the Sun'ts light is what draws me to them.  All in all they do all of these things.

The watercolor picture was done by Lillian Grimes, an artist and neighbor of my grandmother. in Chanute, KS.  She also painted.  I  have a painting of a cactus in bloom by L.Grimes, passed down through the years to adorn the wall of the spare bedroom.

They map the Sun.  From the early glimpse of light to the fading rays that bring the evening, the sunflowers follow the path of the sun across the skies with their faces affixed to the face of the sun.  Ladies of the Sun grace our lives for just a little while in the days of summer.  And in the winter the seeds give nourishment to the birds, as I put them inside after the petals have fallen and the birds have munched on a few here and there before I get them collected.  And I save some seeds to plant for I love to see these flowers of the Sun in my own yard each year.