I was talking with a friend the other day and sharing a nice childhood memory. I was reminiscing about laying, flat on my back, in the back yard eyes closed, feeling the sun wash over my skin. I swear I can close my eyes now and take myself right back to that yard, that grass and that feeling. I can still see the effect the sun made turning the inside of my eyelids "red" as I kept my eyes tightly shut. I can still feel the picky grass beneath me, still feel warm breeze rustle my dress, still feel that lovely, safe place. That lovely, safe time.
I can also recall picking the dandelions from the yard and making "bouquets". I would pretend I was a bride, and march down the little stone path in my yard, listening to the music in my head as I floated down an imaginary aisle. I loved those dandelions, sunny and yellow, bright and cheery. I would pick them and my mother would give me a juice glass to use for a vase and I would set them on my nightstand.
Sometimes the blooms would dry and become wispy white creations. I would pluck them from the grass, make a wish, and blow the puffy white seeds into the air... sending my wish along with it. My mother told me that if the seed travelled far enough the wish would come true. I would puff and puff ,at flower after flower, watching the seeds float away and imagining that they travelled on and on and on. Imagining that my wish would come true. Someday.
Sometimes the blooms would dry and become wispy white creations. I would pluck them from the grass, make a wish, and blow the puffy white seeds into the air... sending my wish along with it. My mother told me that if the seed travelled far enough the wish would come true. I would puff and puff ,at flower after flower, watching the seeds float away and imagining that they travelled on and on and on. Imagining that my wish would come true. Someday.
Nobody ever told me they were weeds.
Nobody ever told me that one day I would own a house, with a lovely yard, and that I would pay someone to come over and make sure I never had any dandelions in my grass. Nobody ever told me that my life would be so full that I would never take the time to lay in the grass, flat on my back, and feel the sun warm my grown up skin.
Nobody told me that all of the wishes I made on wispy, floating dandelion seeds would be all for naught.
Then again....maybe they weren't all for naught. Just maybe one, single wisp of a seed traveled someplace nobody even knew about. Maybe one lone seed did make it and grew to a bloom that is now a wish come true.
It's best to leave the dandelions be. You never know.
Indeed.
3 comments:
Did you ever see "Cosmos"? The science documentary by Carl Sagan. He had "The Spaceship of the Imagination". That was fashioned after a dandelion seed.
I still don't see why a a soft fuzzy thing is names after the lions teeth. Must be the leaves.
Life isn't too full to lie in the grass. I often have to do it after playing tag with the kids. You have to play tag with the kids, otherwise they'll be grown men before you know it, and you never know how long they'll make you wait for grand kids ;-)
I really don't mind dandelions. It is the only way I get 'flowers' in my house. I love to see the joy it brings my children as they pluck the dandelions and hear their words that I am more beautiful than the yellow 'flowers.'
I love lying in the grass with them and looking at clouds. It is hard to remember to be a child with them when you are trying to parent them and make sure they have a good head on their shoulders.
I took a walk one day past the house I grew up in and all my memories came back, everyones names and how they made me feel. Comfortable. I picked some dandelions and made a wish on all of them and I brought home a flower which I laid on the counter.
This morning I was with Haley and I walked past a clover patch and I remembered making necklaces with the white flowers. I picked one for her and she carried it all the way home and then did as I expected her to do...pulled the flower from the stem. I am teaching her to pick all the flowers even the ones some might consider weeds..be accepting of all.
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