“Love the new single – very cool percussion… and a great song for autumn!” Dave Trout UTRMedia
Here is the story:
I wrote Sunflower for a dear childhood friend who fought sarcoma cancer this year. Did you know every cancer has a flower? The flower for her kind is a sunflower. Which is fitting, yellow has long been her favorite color. I wanted to write a song for her. I wrote too many sad songs to process through the possibly of losing her—songs I never shared and couldn’t sing without tears. Instead of a song, I sent her a care package with fuzzy socks, dark chocolate, and small notes saying things like “kick cancer’s butt.” Being the friend she is, she took time to send me a thank-you note. Tucked inside were sunflower stickers, including one that said: In a world full of roses, be a sunflower.
It hit me then. Though I may have needed those sad songs to process what we were going through, she didn’t need a song about her near-death. She needed a song about her life.
I dashed into the recording closet, (that’s how busy moms write songs after all) and there before me was the sunflower poster I had taped up over a year ago. Irony, smacked me in the face. I was suddenly overwhelmed, both by the Lord’s timing, and by the stately beauty of a sunflower. It’s not just any delicate flower, it’s hearty, standing bold and strong. She was going to be okay.
And through our sorrow, perhaps the Lord could use me to write a song to encourage her. A sunflower shows deep devotion to the sun. I hope listeners find this song personally motivating. Even my daughter loves it. After all, what can a bold, loud sunflower girl do when the world prefers quiet orchids? Stand tall, and praise the son who made her of course!
More and more I find the sunflower to beautifully illustrate the Christian walk. Following the sun by day and reseting each night. “His mercies are new every morning” The flower carries on in proud, persistent devotion. In a distracting world, I long for such focus, relying on the son of God wholeheartedly, seeking his face every moment. Even in the middle of our darkest, deepest journeys in life, those in Christ can be encouraged by the ultimate reason to stand tall. No hiding. Just son-ward facing, for all to see. We were made to be sunflowers.
xo, Allie
Sunflower is releasing October 24th. Look for it on all Streaming Platforms.
Oh, and here’s a picture of the sunflower poster in my keyboard/recording closet. I put it there to pretend that I’m not in a closet, a cropped photo also hides the mess LOL:
