Wonderful article. I've recently started growing some sunflowers in my yard. When they're young sprouts and only have a leaf or two, they are very fragile -- if they lose those leaves then their growth is stunted forever. They'll be stubs after that. As some sunflowers outgrow others, the shadows they cast on the smaller ones causes the little ones to twist and bend to escape the shadow and drink in some light.

I think what I love about them is observing their lives play out so much more slowly than ours. They react to their environment and strive for their own goals of survival and reproduction. But so slowly, gently...