{SUNFLOWER GARDEN // ALWAYS LEARNING & HOW WE STAY CONNECTED... }
i’ve been his wife for the last 15 years and their mama for the last 12 and counting. everything i’ve learned about being their mother and his wife has come as a result of faith and love. believing in things i know nothing about and hoping for the all the stuff i just can’t see in the moment. and, can i just tell you a little lesson i learned in the sunflower field? a lesson that seems to always result in the most beautiful of blooms.
“with irresistible charm, they stand tall, unabashedly seeking the sources of their sustenance. sunflowers show us the beauty of staying connected with all that nourishes and sustains us. ”
we pass it almost everyday. hoping on the highway to the grocery store, to visit friends, to church or on the way to nana and pop-pops house. we’ve noticed the tiny black and white light house in the distance and have always wondered but never explored… turns out it is practically right in our own backyard.
dalton farms is a 99 acre family owned and run farm in southern new jersey with a beautiful 6 acre lake, 10 thriving beehives, and while they’ve hosted the annual dalton farms sunflower festival since 2019 we stopped by during the week with no line of parked cars, no food vendors, no music, no paddle boat rentals, wine tasting or beer gardens in sight and still had such a beautiful time.
did you know that…
not all sunflowers are yellow
young sunflower track the sun, their faces follow the sun everyday from sunrise to sunset and is called heliotropism
sunflowers are native to north america
their heads are made of thousands of tiny flowers
…and they can self pollinate
but, it’s the ‘sunflowers track the sun, their faces following the sun everyday from sunrise to sunset’ part that is straight up lesson to my life. it’s the part where they follow/face the light, friendddss. to stay CONNECTED TO THE SOURE!!!!
these fields of zinnias were so beautiful. and right in the middle of the field of flowers… a rustic rose colored bicycle that was the perfect photo op for me and my girl.
and, how handsome is this guy?!?
the day after our visit I got a text from my daddy with a photo of the exact same big red farmall tractor. he just visited a tractor museum near him and was sharing a little story of how his grandfather taught him to drive the very same kind of massive red tractor on their farm as an eight year old boy.
i couldn’t get over how ‘connecting’ his message felt. i replied back with the picture i had just taken of my babies on that very same big red tractor and followed it up with what felt like a few thousand of the care emojis bc that’s how a good human should express emotions through text, lol.
connection with the ones we love makes a difference and adds to the richness of our lives, even if our human connections feel distant, broken, inadequate, confusing etc. our connection to the source that nourishes us will forever sustain.
y’all… i’m always learning, always growing and forever making efforts to stay connected to the source. right in the middle of these beautiful field of sunflowers 🌻 with their faces tracking the sun, refusing to be blinded by the darker moments in life. this is where we learn, where we get better, how we grow!
it was so nice to be in such wide open spaces where there was no need to rush and plenty of room to explore.
of course we took a ba-zillion photos and kendall got a kick out of all the fish he could see in the clear water of the lake. also… the solar panel on the top of this cute little tree trunk of a cottage.
we probably stayed just about 30min too long before Brian felt like it was time to move things along, lol. we all chatted about how nice it will be to come back next season when things are full of lively music, great food, wine tasting full of families connecting and having fun.
consider the stories that life tells and the lessons we can learn to make the days ahead full of unshakable joy.
“always learning, always growing… bc life is full of lessons so, we live and we learn”
with all the love,
syreena