Find Your Sunlight/Success

De’ Anna approached, a sad look spread across her face like a cloud covering the Sun, making it darker.

“Hi, Mom,” she greeted Sonra, hugged her, walked to the bay window near the sofa, and turned the large green flowerpot, with Red Laceleaf Anthurium flowers on the small table in the center, to the right.

Then said, “You know, Mom, every day I keep changing the direction of this flower, and somehow it keeps going back in the same direction. I wonder why?”

“How did it go?” Sonra asked as she sat down beside her.

“Oh mom, I am tired,” De’Anna complained, sitting to her Mom’s left beside her on the sofa. “It seems like the more I try, the more I fail. No matter which direction I turn there is no progress.”

Taking her daughter’s hands, Sonra’s eyes move to the heart shapes leaves of the Laceleaf flowers in the giant flowerpot in the center of her living room, and she says, “No one moves the flower.”

De-Anna’s brows furled, then unfurled, and she asked, “are you sure?”

“Every day before you leave for work, you turn the flowerpot in one direction. When you return home from work, you do it again and complained that someone is moving it. Nobody does,” her mother explained.

“Mom, don’t tell me that this plant moves by itself,” she said, weirdly eyeing her Mom.

“That flower moves towards the sun’s direction,” her mother notified.

“What?”

“Plants need sunlight to survive. Water alone isn’t enough. It knows where to find it and follows the direction. Twice a day, you keep changing its direction and it refuses to give up,” Sonra stapled inside her daughter’s heart.

De’ Anna got the message and nodded as tears ran down her cheeks. Breathing heavily, freeing her tears, she pulled away from her Mom. Her brows were in a knot as her brain battled the truth, her feelings, and her emotions that were demanding control, along with the wisdom and understanding in her mother’s explanation.

She wiped her eyes with the back of her right hand and said, “like this flower, my sunlight direction is out there, and I won’t find it if I give up.”

With a big smile, her mother counseled, “Yes, life will turn you in many directions. You will never get your sunlight of success if you don’t find your own direction. Like this beautiful plant. It turns into the direction of the Sun no matter which direction you turn it. Find your own direction, and you will find your sunlight.”

Wiping away tears De’Anna said, “Oh Mom, how will I know?”

“It’s winter, and sometimes the Sun doesn’t come out. When it doesn’t, the plant stay where you turn it. Remember, two days last week, you came home, looked at it, and said, “thank god no one moved it.”

Her eyes popped open, and her Mom continued, “this plant didn’t see the Sun, so it stayed where it is and the next day you complained that someone moved it. That was because the Sun came out that day.”

“So you are saying that I will know when to ease back and when to go,” she questioned.

“Yes honey,” her Mom caressed her left hand on the sofa beside her. “All of that is inside of you. You have a reason to want success so listen to your instincts. Like this plant have a reason to live, so it goes after the sunlight no matter which direction you turns it. Don’t allow failure to deny you of your sunlight. This plant didn’t. It found a way. So can you!”

This plant is in the home of the case I care for. Twice a day, she has me turning the plant in her direction so she can enjoy its beauty. It’s at the window and needs sunlight to survive. It turns towards the Sun every day that the Sun comes out. It stays where I turn it when the day is deary and the clouds cover the Sun.

Humans and plants aren’t different. We need water and sunlight to survive. Humans have more options than plants.

Don’t allow anyone to block your sunlight/success.

Find your own light no matter how they spin you around!

Thank you for reading this piece. I hope you enjoy it.