Good Morning Brown Clee!

Yesterday we began our new term thinking about our new Christian value – Courage.  We thought about how courage is so important in so many different ways – as we all have worries, fears or challenges that we need to overcome – some are big and some are small, but they all need us to find the courage to overcome them.

We are now in the summer term, and the world around us is really starting to brighten up – with longer, lighter days, more sunshine (hopefully!) and lots of flowers and blossom coming to life in the fields and garden. I wonder if you can guess what my favourite flower might be if I give you a few clues?  They are small flowers and they don’t grow very tall.  These flowers have yellow centres with a halo of delicate white petals.  They like the sun and you find them in the summer. Sometimes people pick them to make chains from them. Can you work it out?

Yes – one of my favourite flowers is the tiny daisy!

Are you surprised that this flower is a favourite?  After all, a daisy is a small, very common flower and it doesn’t have much of a perfume. You wouldn’t expect to find common daisies in a bouquet of flowers – in fact, daisies are often called weeds!  You can find daisies all over the place – in the grass, in cracks in the ground, between paving stones and on waste sites.  In fact, daisies can be found everywhere on earth except Antarctica because they are so good at conquering new habitats.

Have you ever seen one daisy growing alone? Probably not often as daisies usually grow together in clumps and can even cover whole fields making a lovely white-and-yellow display.  Something that you might not know about daisies, is that they are the bravest and most resilient of flowers – they just keep coming back even when they are trodden on, picked or cut down by a lawnmower.

I wish I could cut my lawn as quickly as that!!  But what about those amazing daisies!  They got cut down and then, like magic, the plants grew new flowers!  How amazing is that!?  They didn’t stay flowerless, with flowerless stalks – they showed resilience and courage and grew back!  That’s just what daisies do – they keep bouncing back. It is as if they refuse to be defeated, and are determined to keep smiling and enjoying life.

I think we could all do with learning from the little common daisy – and try and be bold and courageous when we come up against a challenge, worry or problem!  We need to learn to bounce back!  Now can you work out why such a little, common flower is one of my favourites?

There are many circumstances in life that hit us hard and could defeat us. Perhaps we have been badly treated, have lost someone we love or have been wrongly blamed for something. Perhaps others have laughed at us, perhaps schoolwork seems impossible or perhaps we have simply had enough of Covid-19 getting in the way of our enjoyment of everyday life.

The daisies teach us an important lesson. It is not circumstances that determine our mood, but our reaction to them. The daisies could simply say, ‘Oh, what’s the point? I’ll just lie down and give up.’ But they don’t!

Take a quiet moment and reflect on these words:-

‘We don’t grow when things are easy, we grow when we face challenges.’ – just like the daisy!

Prayer of the Day

Dear God,
Thank you for all the beautiful things that you have put around us.
Thank you for daisies, and for all that they can teach us about being brave and joyful.
Thank you that they grow together.
Please help us to grow together.
Please help us to be there to care for and support one another.
Amen.