Sunflowers Part II

the power of prayer... or just shy of a prayer, aka asking for help

Sep 15, 2023

A quick update before continuing with Sunflowers Part II.

With regard to the subscriptions that have come in from my post about Maui (If you missed it, you can view it here,) I’m thrilled to share that I have collected $350, two Founding member subscriptions and three yearly subscriptions. As I promised, all yearly or Founder subscriptions received in September will be donated to the victims of the Maui fires, along with my own donation. For those who have so generously subscribed, please accept my heartfelt thanks. And if any of you are still considering subscribing, you have until the end of September and there are still three t-shirts up for grabs, 2 smalls and one XL, for any Founder subscriptions (photo of the t-shirt in the original post.) I will update you all again at the end of the month.

Okay, onto more Sunflowers. Can we ever have enough sunflowers? Also there are many references in this post to older posts. I’ve provided links (should show as purple) if you’d like to read those stories.

Within a day of passing the sunflower on the roadside, Rick received word that we would receive a check from his mother's estate. This was NOT something we were expecting. We loved the news, but having no idea what the amount would be, we were careful to raise our hopes only a little.

But I did find myself thinking, gee, could it be that God/the Universe heard my prayer?

Of course, I heard you, sweet Sue. I'm always listening. I named you long before you were a glint in your father's eye, but I let him take the credit.

The check took a little over a week to arrive. I was the one to collect the mail and hurried back down the driveway to give it to Rick.

This August delivered unusual weather, a few rainy days, along with thunderstorms off in the distance every now and then. It was not raining that day, but cloudy and cool for August. We had our kitchen sliding doors open.

Rick and I stood opposite sides of our kitchen island as he opened the mail. Holding the check in his hands, he uttered "Hmmm," with a lift on the last m. I know him well enough to know that was a good sign. "Hmmm," with a drop in tone at the end of the word would mean, "Oh well, it was a nice thought."

"Hmmm," lifting the last consonant signaled good news.

Drawing out the suspense of the moment, he asked, "Do you want to know the full amount of the check or our portion?" (Four siblings would divide the total amount.)

I chose the latter.

He read the number aloud to me. We looked at each other across the counter in disbelief. The amount would cover all the costs we had been stressing over and then some. I started crying, of course, and five seconds later, we heard an extremely loud thunderclap overhead, so close to us that the house rattled.

We looked at each other, completely gobsmacked.

You're welcome, my dear. I have two requests; please don't write this off as a coincidence. It's disappointing when I do something this lovely and get no credit for it. I've sent the noise to let you know it's me. Secondly, please pay it forward.

We hugged and laughed. I continued to cry. My prayer had been heard and answered. Feeling extremely blessed, over the next few days we each in our own quiet moments released the individual concerns and stresses we had been harboring. We made a financial plan and did our best to include paying it forward.

Each day since I wave at the sunflower on the side of the road. She has gone from one flower to three, then down to two, and last I saw her she had five flowers. It used to be that I had to work hard to see her on the road as I was driving along at 60 miles an hour. These days, I can see her a mile away.

God/Universe, I think this could become a habit, that I see you and that I know right where you are on the road. That I might continue to ask for direction in the future if I'm struggling with something. Again, I'm taking Julia Cameron at her word that it should be okay.

Oh, and it seems I am my mother’s daughter, Helen’s prayer said it all…

Thank you, God… Thank you, God.

Sending love to my Julie and the Julia (Cameron) she introduced me to, with special thanks to Ali Vingiano for providing the time and space to read “The Artist's Way.”