The common dandelion has been a great teacher for me. From the dandelion I was reminded about the importance of imagination and received new lessons on compassion, friendship, prejudice and trust.
These lessons began with my daughter Hannah, who was only two at that time. She loved dandelions. When spring and summer arrived you could tell where Hannah had been in our little village. Our daily trek from the house to the post-office or beach became a struggle to find enough dandelions to hold in her little hands.
Most mornings before we did anything else I would have to open the door and let her out into the yard to find a few dandelions (daisies will do if we are out of dandelions). Once in the house the flowers would be picked apart petal by petal into a big pile or become little playmates for the morning. By the end of the summer I became as good at picking out the stragglers as her and would point them out just to see her eyes light up and hear her say “Look mommy, a flower, I found one!” It’s quite amazing how well these little flowers hold up clasped in sticky, small palms.
Hannah would look quite comical with her face spotted yellow from the pollen that she had rubbed over her eyes, nose, mouth and her favorite spot – her chin. Her fingers are yellow most of the summer and my carpet often looks like a birds nest. At first I didn’t know what to do, becoming annoyed with the constant vacuuming.
That is when this ordinary flower became my teacher.
My first lesson was patience, because you can’t hurry a child who is strolling down the street, enjoying life and stopping, especially at first bloom to smell the dandelions.
Lesson two was trust, for Hannah would put enormous trust in me to hang onto her dandelions when the swings or beach called out and if I lost even one she would know and being blamed by a two year old for losing her treasure is a very guilt ridden ride.
Lesson three was imagination because enough said, to a child a dandelion is never just a dandelion.
Lesson four was friendship. Hannah met and made many friends with her yellow mustache, in fact she converted a large number of children to join her in her picking crusade.
Last but not least though is that kids are not prejudiced, they ARE taught to be that way. I do not know how may times I heard people tell Hannah what ugly flowers dandelions are and that they are just weeds and should be killed, after she had happily shown them her beautiful flowers.
Once in awhile I will cache a glimpse of a dried dandelion in a corner behind a door, under a couch or stuck in a Lego. Now I just leave them there, for the memories they bring back are much sweeter than arguing over a messy carpet.
So the next time you see some bright, yellow dandelions giving color to a summer’s day, please don’t say they are ugly for it is in the spirit of the ordinary that we see the extraordinary.
Namaste.
Pamela Nelson
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