031 Face the Morning
Hey Sunflower, when you are young you chase the sun across the sky. Once grown, you stop chasing and face the east, so the first warmth of the morning finds you, and more bees come to you.
Are we chasing the sun, or facing the morning?
Are you chasing the sun, or facing the morning?
A field of young sunflowers in the morning: every head facing east. By evening, every head faces west. They have followed the sun all day.
Come back weeks later. The flowers are open now. And they all face east, and stay there.
What really happens
Young sunflowers turn to follow the sun across the sky each day, and swing back at night.
Once they are grown and in flower, they stop turning and face east. East-facing flowers warm up faster in the morning and get more visits from bees.
How we know: Atamian and colleagues, Science, 2016.
The turn
When we are young, we chase everything: every trend, every offer, every bright thing.
Maturity is choosing a direction and facing where the day begins.
Three takeaways
- Chasing is how we grow. Facing is how we flower.
- Choose a direction and stay with it.
- Good things come to those who are ready early.
Stop chasing the sun. Face the morning.
Only that day dawns to which we are awake.