My Sunflowers

My husband Larry and I were visiting San Francisco, and were staying right downtown, so on Saturday morning we took a walk down to the Ferry Building at the end of Market Street. It used to be the center of transportation for the city in the days when there were no bridges crossing San Francisco Bay, but now it had been turned into a food lovers paradise with vendors of local organic and artisan foods inside, and a thriving farmer’s market on Saturday mornings.

This is the best farmer’s market I’ve ever been to. It takes a good hour just to walk around it and more if you stop to taste all the samples: luscious peaches, nectarines, apricots, strawberries… All the food is locally grown and produced–fruits, vegetables, herbs, cheeses, breads, eggs, other specialty foods, and flowers. I loved the artistry of the food–one stall sold dried figs cut into four, so they dried into a star, another sold their yogurt in charming pottery crocks that could be returned and reused.  The whole energy of the place felt alive and vibrant. All the shoppers had huge smiles on their faces. I loved seeing the children in strollers eating fresh organic berries instead of junk food. As a spirit I felt so uplifted by how much the farmers cared about their food and the love they put into growing and preparing it, and the appreciation and delight of the shoppers, including my own.

I had been to this farmer’s market alone the previous Saturday morning, and this week I brought Larry, insisting he had to experience this special place. The previous week I had purchased an armful of cosmos flowers in varying shades of pink to liven up the impersonal atmosphere of the hotel room, but they had wilted and it was time for another bouquet.

As we passed the first stall that sold flowers, I saw some sunflowers that just took my breath away. They were small for sunflowers, about six inches across, and had a unique extra row of small petals, densely packed, the center that were more intensely yellow, making the flowers look especially bright and vibrant. I was attracted to them right away as a spirit and wanted to buy a bunch.

Larry loved them too, but said, “Let’s wait and buy them just before we leave.” Though there were many bunches of sunflowers at this stall, there were only five bunches of these special sunflowers, and it was a busy morning. They might not be there by the time we had made the round of the whole market. But Larry made sense. It wouldn’t be good for the flowers to carry them around for an hour or more with no water, and I knew he didn’t want to carry them longer than he had to.

I knew I loved these sunflowers and wanted them, but there might be others that I loved more elsewhere! So I made an intention that the flowers I loved most would be available when I was ready to leave the market, and went on.

As we circled around the stalls in that area, we came back to this flower stall, Still there were five bunches. “Let’s buy them now,” I said to Larry, but again he replied, “No, let’s wait until we are ready to leave.” It crossed my mind to buy a bunch and have them hold it for me, but thought, no, if these are the flowers I love most, they will be here when I return, and we went on to the next area of the market.

Though there were other flowers at the market I also liked, my attention kept coming back to these sunflowers with their bright happy faces, so when it was time to leave, we went back to the first flower stall. It was now about an hour and a half later.

There was one bunch of these sunflowers left. Earlier, all five bunches had been in a bucket by themselves, but the farmer had moved this last bunch into a bucket with another variety. Still, I spotted my sunflowers right away.

“Look, Larry,” I exclaimed. “They are still here!” My intention had “held” them just for me.

We bought the last bunch and they brightened our hotel room for a week.

Over and over I’ve noticed the ease in my life when I use my ability as a spirit to direct with intention even the little things of daily life. Everything just all works out in a harmonious way.