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    The Sunflower Principle: Life Lessons from a Simple Flower
    The Sunflower Principle: Life Lessons from a Simple Flower
    The Sunflower Principle: Life Lessons from a Simple Flower
    Ebook122 pages6 hours

    The Sunflower Principle: Life Lessons from a Simple Flower

    By Donna Austin

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    About this ebook

    In The Sunflower Principle: Life Lessons from a Simple Flower, author Donna Austin chronicles the role sunflowers played in her recovery from the ashes of divorce. Sunflowers were a favorite flower of her daughter, but it wasn’t until she faced the agony of divorce and an empty nest that she realized they symbolized hope and love for her. From these big, bold, beautiful sunflowers and during time spent in her garden, she learned many valuable lessons about how to withstand the storms of life, lift up her head, and stand tall again.

    She has presented the lessons she learned from tending to the sunflowers in the form of seeds of wisdom in The Sunflower Principle. Through these lessons, she offers a simple guide for living, with all people—regardless of race, religion, or national origin. In order to become a sunflower, it is necessary to sow some seeds ourselves—seeds of compassion, love, peace, and understanding. The result of sowing these four tiny seeds make a difference in our lives, and become the catalyst for change in our world.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherInspiring Voices
    Release dateSep 26, 2012
    ISBN9781462402779
    The Sunflower Principle: Life Lessons from a Simple Flower
    Author

    Donna Austin

    Donna Austin, a native of Jonesboro, Arkansas, also lived in the Dallas area for thirty years. She has two children and four grandchildren. Donna has been published by Argus Communications in Allen, Texas, and featured in Guideposts Magazine. Her poetry has been published in Amidst the Splendor — The National Library of Poetry. Donna is the Director of Writers’ Ink, a creative writing group of Jonesboro, and a member of the National League of American Pen Women.

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      Book preview

      The Sunflower Principle - Donna Austin

      Copyright © 2012 Donna Austin

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

      Inspiring Voices books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

      Inspiring Voices

      1663 Liberty Drive

      Bloomington, IN 47403

      www.inspiringvoices.com

      1-(866) 697-5313

      Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

      Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

      Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

      ISBN: 978-1-4624-0278-6 (sc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4624-0277-9 (e)

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2012914914

      Inspiring Voices rev. date: 9/20/2012

      Contents

      Introduction: The Sunflower Principle

      CHAPTER 1  LIFE AFTER DIVORCE

      CHAPTER 2  THE STRANGER AT LUNCH

      CHAPTER 3  SUNFLOWERS, A GIFT OF LOVE

      CHAPTER 4  SUNFLOWER FRIENDS

      CHAPTER 5  PRINCIPLE TO LIVE BY

      CHAPTER 6  SUNFLOWER PEOPLE

      CHAPTER 7  NEW SUNFLOWER FRIENDS

      CHAPTER 8  FRIENDS ARE LIKE FLOWERS

      CHAPTER 9  A SEED OF COMPASSION

      CHAPTER 10  LOVE IN ACTION

      CHAPTER 11  PEACE

      CHAPTER 12  UNDERSTANDING

      CHAPTER 13  TEACHERS ARE SUNFLOWER’S IN FULL BLOOM

      CHAPTER 14  SEARCHING FOR STARS AMONG THE SUNFLOWERS

      CHAPTER 15  JOIN HANDS

      CHAPTER 16  THE MYSTERIES AND MIRACLES OF FLOWERS

      CHAPTER 17  START THE CONVERSATION

      Acknowledgments

      Biblography

      If you have received this book as a gift, it means that you have been observed sowing the four Sunflower Principle seeds into the life of another. That officially makes you a sunflower! Thank you for sharing your gifts of service.

      The Sunflower Principle is my gift to you, because you have been a sunflower to me.

      (Insert signature & date line)

      _________________________________________

      IN MEMORY OF MY SUNFLOWER AND DEAR FRIEND,

      HYLAH MCCOLLUM

      Donna Austin’s story about the Sunflower Principle inspires us to examine the gift of friendship. Donna’s own friendship bouquet is gigantic and vibrant because she has been doing exactly what she asks of us. May her inspiration become ours, and may Sunflower Groups spring up everywhere!

      June Williams, Educator

      Donna Austin celebrates the gift of deep personal friendships, as she exposes her authentic life experiences and creates the opportunity for the reader to reflect on the relationships in his/her life. This inspirational view of relationships reveals opportunities to sow the seeds of compassion, love, peace, and understanding.

      Jackie McBride, Ed. D.

      PRINCIPLE:

      Merriam-Webster.com/dictionary defines the word principle as follows:

      a: a comprehensive and fundamental law, doctrine, or assumption

      b: (1): a rule or code of conduct (2) habitual devotion to right principles.

      Introduction: The Sunflower Principle

      After I recovered from the ashes of divorce that destroyed my family of twenty-five years, I fell in love again. My love affair was with a bunch of big, bold, and beautiful sunflowers. I learned many valuable lessons in my garden tending to these simple flowers. They taught me how to withstand the storms of life, how to lift my head, to stand tall again with the confidence to face another day. I learned the importance of building relationships with my friends who continue to stand by me no matter what. Sunflowers taught me how to have fun again and how to make life meaningful. Tending to the sunflowers gave my life purpose and meaning when my family left me with a quiet, lonely, empty nest.

      This book contains the lessons I learned during this period of growth in my life. The first lesson I learned from the sunflowers was the sun always comes back no matter how bad the storm. The lessons are presented here in the form of seeds of wisdom. I became aware of what I was sowing each day in my life by my actions and words. These lessons created a small movement among my friends called the Sunflower Principle. It is a simple guide for living, with all people, regardless of race, religion, or national origin. It is a call to action, to use our individual powers to make a difference in the world. The movement encourages people to take a stand for decency for the benefit of our children and grandchildren. It encourages people to stand up against violence, vulgar language, and nudity, and to hold media companies accountable for their role in the destruction of family values.

      By sowing seeds of compassion, love, peace, and understanding, we have the individual power to change our world. My hope is that regular salt-of-the-earth people soccer moms and dads, grandmothers and grandfathers, waitresses, housekeepers, executives, managers, clerks, aunts, sisters, brothers, and cousins will use their voices and their personal influence to call attention to the things about which they are passionate. One’s passion may be for inner-city children while another’s may be the treatment of the elderly. None of us can single-handedly change the world, but I believe each person has the power to influence others and effect change one person at a

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