Pocketful of Sunshine

“Darkest nights herald the brightest dawns.”

— Taliesin Loveless, written on the back of a discarded cocktail napkin

Long ago, when the world was young and the gods still walked among us, there lived a demigod named Velos. With an insatiable appetite for mischief and nothing better to do with his days, Velos used his skills as a shapeshifter to sow discord and play pranks on unsuspecting mortals, whose distress amused him greatly.

His father, Grimnir, the wisest and most powerful of the gods, soon grew tired of his son’s antics and forbade Velos from tricking mortals under the light of day. But Velos, ever the cunning trickster, saw a loophole in his father’s demands. One night, he snuck into the dominion of Syllara, goddess of the dawn, in an attempt to steal the sun itself.

With nimble fingers, he plucked the sun from its place in the heavens, stashed it into a little pot, then snuck away in the guise of a bluebird. He cackled with reckless abandon as he flew, and in his hasty escape, a little bit of the sun spilled out of the pot and onto the land beneath him.

As he soared above the clouds, the world below grew darker and colder, but Velos was too busy relishing in his own cleverness to even notice. However, he quickly realized that without the day to come along and end it, the night would never be fun again! So, he returned the sun to its rightful place and apologized to his father for his foolish behavior.

But the land where the sun spilt was forever changed. From where the sundrops fell upon the earth, bright yellow flowers began to grow. We now know these beautiful blooms as sunflowers, which turn to follow the sun’s golden path through the sky. They exist as an eternal reminder of the time the sun was stolen from the heavens, and of the trickster who stole it.