I’m a huge fan of Jeff Buckley. His haunting, beautiful voice and tragic story (he drowned when he was 30 years old) have always hit me deeply. The man understood the depths of emotional pain like very few do; however, I’m not here to discuss the life of Mr. Buckley. I want to talk about one of his unreleased demos, “All Flowers In Time Bend Towards The Sun” featuring Elizabeth Fraser. I don’t even want to talk about the song, which is a hauntingly beautiful love song that I suggest you listen to. I want to discuss the name.
All flowers in time bend towards the sun. The first time I heard this phrase, I was taken aback. It’s beautiful, but it’s not exactly easy to say why. I can analyze the phrase for you, but that’s missing the point. You just have to feel it. It’s an acknowledgment of something universal, something shared by everyone and everything. It’s growth, it’s progress, it’s perseverance. Truth be told, it’s life itself.
We live in a culture of high demands, and with demands come expectations. We’re expected to do or have things by certain points in our lives, but for so many of us, that’s not how life turns out. We aim to be married by 30, have a family by 40, become millionaires by 50 and retire by 60. Decades come and go, and while some of these things go according to plan, many do not. Situations change, things fall apart and cycles unfold, yet we hold onto this pressure to be somewhere else. To be someone else. Most of our pain and anxiety comes from this pressure, which is really just one big illusion created from the made-up stories we tell ourselves.
The truth is, we’re all bending towards the sun on our own timelines. Many times things don’t go our way and we get lost - we lose the job, we get sick, we have to say goodbye to someone we love. This doesn’t mean we’re off track. It’s just a part of the bending process, and if we make sure to serve our brothers and sisters and move through life with love, we will continue on towards the sun. I love the image of flowers trying to reach the sun. It’s a task of extraordinary magnitude, these little flowers trying to do the impossible. They try anyway - one day at a time, one millimeter at a time. That’s exactly what we are, and that’s exactly what we do. We’re tiny specks in relation to this impossibly vast universe, but we strive anyway. We strive to be something more than what we are today - we bend towards our own suns. We’re always reaching out for something beyond ourselves, and it’s a beautiful, painful, magnificent process. Truth be told, it’s life itself.
C.S. Lewis would call this yearning for something greater our search for God, and I would have to agree. The only difference being God does not have to be Mr. Lewis’s Christian God. God can be a creator, a force, an energy, an idea, a purpose - anything beyond what we can materially experience. If we are willing to admit that our egos are not the greatest power in the universe, then we can start. Then we can begin to let go of the chains that bind us to old patterns, old thoughts and old ways of being. Then we can begin the great bend towards the sun of which we dream.
I hope this image fills you joy as you go about your week. Think about all the ways you are bending towards your own sun, and enjoy the ride. Remember, you’re not on anyone’s time but your own. You’re exactly where you need to be.
So beautifully expressed!!