2 Earth-Body-Soul: Learning Joy from the Coreopsis
“The Earth laughs in flowers.”
Daily Word of Intention
Joy
Centering Thought
I am like the coreopsis, I grow tall and bright; I am persistent in my cheerfulness.
Questions
When you are down, how do you find your cheer?
Do you grow your own coreopsis?
Did you know that coreopsis comes from Greek and means looks like a bug?
Gratitude:
I am so thankful for my ability to learn. I am thankful for the internet that makes research so easy. I am thankful for history. I am thankful for all of the insights I have learned today about this flower. I am thankful for the joy I experience every time I see my patches of coreopsis growing in my garden. I am thankful that I too can be persistent in my cheerfulness.
Reflection
I am the coreopsis. Native to Africa and to the Americas including Hawaii, I am common to Canada, the States, and Mexico. I am a flower of the Great Plains. I have been naturalized in China. Of the wild, I am rooted deeply, my stems grow up reaching for warmth. Named for the appearance of my seed, I am called Coreopsis from the Greek koris, meaning bed bug, and opsis, appearance. Prolificly, I bud and bloom, young again and again with so many new beginnings, and each new petal slow, so very slowly opening, unfolding to the light of the sun. And each new growth as cheerful as the one before. I am persistent in cheer. Like my cousin, the sunflower, my face follows the sun in adoration. I am joy. I am happiness. I delight in my being. Yellow of all sorts, I am manipura. I am a resplendent gem, lustrous, a house of jewels. I radiate the energy of happiness and intellect. I am fire; I glow. Out of my center, I swirl—inward and outward, I am a balanced pattern of ray petals, my lacy face has many discs. Eat me, and I aid digestion. I promote healthier digestion and elimination. I am supportive of the pancreas and kidney and the function of the adrenals. I calm inflammations. I lover the pressure of the blood. To care for me, leave me in the full of the sun, and give me good soil to grow in. Cut away my old growth. With that gone, I bloom ever so much the more. I am color. I share my color and my shades dye the fabrics of the world. I am warmth. Brewed with water, I warm the hands and bellies of my caretakers.
I can be cultivated too and have been grown in gardens for centuries. I am at ease in the wilds or in the structured and not-so-structured gardens across the globe. I am drought tolerant and the deer do not like my taste. I have evolved. You can find many varieties of me, both annual and perennial. I am self seeding and winter hardy - though my seeds need light to germinate, and I am a long-day-obligate: I need the long day of the sun to bloom.
Works Cited
Batschke, Karl. “A CHEER FOR Coreopsis.” Horticulture, vol. 115, no. 6, Nov. 2018, pp. 62–69. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&AN=132335444&site=eds-live.
“Coreopsis.” Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia, Jan. 2018, p. 1; EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=funk&AN=co216200&site=eds-live.
Gaumond, Andrew. “Everything You Need to Know About Coreopsis Flowers.” https://www.petalrepublic.com/coreopsis-flowers/ Assessed 2 July 2021.
Zhang Y, Mourboul A, Li ZY. [Research advance in medicinal plants from genus Coreopsis]. Zhongguo Zhong Yao Za Zhi. 2013 Aug;38(16):2633-8. Chinese. PMID: 24228578.
Blessings
Thank you for joining me today! I hope you have a beautiful day! Please leave a comment below. I would love to hear from you. Peace for now - and remember, stay CHARMED ~