sunshine on a cloudy day

i can hardly believe what just happened! i was powerwalking along the busiest street in my neighborhood (because there is a sidewalk, which grants me a certain amount of safety from getting plowed over by a taxi or motorbike), when suddenly i caught a glimpse of a hundred sunflowers smiling at me from behind a chainlink fence. i did a serious double-take to make certain i was not hallucinating. i contemplated jumping the fence but decided to walk a few more yards when lo and behold - a gate....a wide open gate! as i made my way into this beautiful surprise, i was transported light years away from traffic smog and city noise....i found myself deep in a sanctuary of stillness and sunshine.
it just so happens that this sunflower field is full of winding trails that lead to other trails that lead into endless forest.....i hiked for over two hours in complete astonishment and delight at this remarkable discovery. i felt so giddy....like i had stumbled into narnia or some enchanted wonderland....there are so many reasons to be happy.












"come with me
into the field of sunflowers.
their faces are burnished disks,
their dry spines

creak like ship masts,
their green leaves,
so heavy and many,
fill all day with the sticky

sugars of the sun.
come with me
to visit the sunflowers,
they are shy

but want to be friends;
they have wonderful stories
of when they were young -
the important weather,

the wandering crows.
don't be afraid
to ask them questions!
their bright faces,

which follow the sun,
will listen, and all
those rows of seeds -
each one a new life

hope for a deeper acquaintance;
each of them, though it stands
in a crowd of many,
like a separate universe,

is lonely, the long work
of turning their lives
into a celebration
is not easy. come

and let us talk with those modest faces,
the simple garments of leaves,
the coarse roots in the earth
so uprightly burning."

-mary oliver