2 Beautiful Ideas: Sunflowers and Benches

Beautiful Idea #1: The Sunflower Lanyard

Here’s something you might not have known. There are over a billion people worldwide who have some form of disability and 80% of them aren’t visible*.  These ‘hidden disabilities’ can range from psychological (e.g., ADHD, Neurodivergence, etc. ) to physical (e.g., hearing loss, intestinal issues, etc.) and are just that, hidden from the naked eye.

People living with invisible disabilities often face many challenges every day. You may have friends or family that have an invisible disability and you hope that others will treat them with the same patience and kindness that you yourself exhibit when you’re around them.  

Sometimes we’re impatient with someone at the checkout counter at the grocery store, parking lot, or anywhere in public. I’m sure if we knew they had a disability we would be more understanding. But how is someone (i.e., strangers) to know when someone has a disability when it isn’t visible?  

In 2016, the UK launched The Sunflower Lanyard Scheme to help and support travelers who needed assistance at Gatwick Airport. The idea was simple. People with hidden disabilities would wear a lanyard with sunflowers to alert airport staff that this person may need additional assistance and should be treated with patience and care. They chose the sunflower as the symbol because it represents happiness, positivity, and strength. The sunflower lanyard has also been adopted here in the U.S. 

What a beautiful concept!  Imagine for a moment if everyone who needed help or assistance was wearing one. How would we change? How would our disposition towards others change?  

The next time you find yourself being a bit impatient with a fellow human, pause for a moment and ask yourself, “Is this person struggling from a disability I can’t see?”   Or, simply remember that we ALL have some form of disability, things we’re not good at, so why not be patient with each other?

Beautiful Idea #2: The Red Bench

Scrolling through my LinkedIn feed, I came across a post by Doug Whaley that made me smile and believe that the best answers to solving complex human interactions are unusually simple. 

Here’s the anecdote he shared:

Walking through my son's schoolyard, I notice a bench painted bright red. I asked my son, "Is that the only place to sit around here?" 

He said, "No, that's the buddy bench. When someone feels lonely or they have nobody to play with, they sit there and kids ask them to play." 

“Wow! Amazing!” I then told him how wonderful that was and asked him if he ever used it. 

He said, "Yeah. When I was new I sat there and someone came and asked me to play. I felt happy. And now, when I see kids on it, I ask them to play with me. We all do."

Author: Unknown

The Red Bench is a place you go when you’re feeling left out. It takes a lot of courage and humility to sit on that bench.  And it takes even more courage to offer companionship or to invite someone to play.

How much kinder would this world seem if we had more Sunflower Lanyards and Red Benches?

Victor Antonio

*Statistics from Hidden Disabilities Insights