In our own backyard... Got a sunflower in your cart?

There are two things in life guaranteed to make folks smile - babies and puppies. I may have just discovered one more....

No matter how you look at it, few of us can resist the appealing sight of a small, pink face gazing up from an infant carrier in the grocery store checkout lane. And if that very same face happens to burst into a cherubic grin at the very moment you're looking at him or her - well, consider your heart completely lost.

Grown adults suddenly turn into blubbering children again, making silly faces and talking baby talk with smiles of delight on their faces.

It's simply a fact of life.

And when it comes to puppies, well, let me tell you that many a young man is missing the boat by not catching on to the fact that he could attract girls if only he had a puppy to walk.

I've observed mobs of adoring females, both young and old, stopping to fawn over a man walking a yellow Labrador puppy or a golden retriever, when few would otherwise deign to open a conversation with a complete stranger....

Puppies, like babies, predictably create an instant sense of happiness that brings a fleeting smile to our faces and a song to our hearts.

The other day I discovered - quite by accident - something quite unorthodox and unexpected that had the same sort of effect.

I was dashing through my lunch hour, shopping list grasped in hand, as I prepared to make the rounds of a local discount store. And though I had numerous things to shop for that day, I couldn't help but notice a display of spectacular, potted sunflowers on the sidewalk outside the store.

The price was so reasonable, and the flowers were so spectacular, I decided to pick one up for my daughter's birthday, quite on the spur of the moment.

I grabbed a cart and carefully positioned the sunflower plant right square in the middle of it, with its bright, cheerful flowers peeking out over the top.

And from the moment I entered the store, I felt as though the eyes of all of the other shoppers were upon me.

I was in the greeting card aisle picking out a birthday card, when the first woman approached me.

"Where did you get that sunflower?" she exclaimed.

"It was part of a display on the sidewalk outside the store," I replied.

"It's so gorgeous! How much was it? " she asked.

I suddenly felt my chest puff up a bit. I'd barely gotten out my response when another nearby shopper chimed in.

"Oh, my gosh!" she cried. "That sunflower is beautiful!"

I smiled and nodded proudly, and suddenly it seemed that everyone around me seemed to be smiling back at me.

It wasn't long before yet another woman stopped to rave over the sunflower in my cart.

"What a wonderful sunflower!" she exclaimed in delight. "Do they have them somewhere in the store?"

And so it went - time after time, I was waylayed by complete strangers, exclaiming over the beauty of the sunflower in my cart. Some asked about it, and others just smiled.

"That," commented former Cloquet teacher Dave Otterson as he wheeled past me and cast an admiring glance my way, "is one very pretty flower...."

I nodded and grinned, as though I was showing off my first-born child or a precious new puppy.

I shouldn't have been surprised, therefore, at what happened next.

When I finished my shopping, checked out, and headed out the door to my car, my eyes flew open wide. For there, in the middle of the sidewalk, was a crowd of smiling shoppers, hovering eagerly around the display of bright, yellow sunflowers...