IS THAT A WEED?
I’m sitting with my laptop in the backyard of Ron’s house…I can’t keep saying fiancé it just sounds too…what…pretentious? …unbelievable is closer since at my age it really is just that…so thought I’d go ahead and introduce him.
At the moment I am contemplating dandelions. Lots and lots and lots of dandelions. And little yellow things I don’t know the name of and when Ron asks me what they are I say…It’s a flower. I mean…what do I know…I live in Hell’s Kitchen.
Well…some of the time.
I actually love the dandelions even though I know now that they are weeds and will soon have their fluffy little heads mowed under. I understand they don’t serve any purpose and are actually destructive but I feel like I’ve kind of made some new friends sitting out here talking to them and about them while I’m trying to work.
I did try to pick them for a little bouquet but they are so very ephemeral and fragile and I can relate to how easily they can lose their heads at the slightest attempt to uproot them. Their little feathers just blow off and join the wind and go traveling to parts unknown…or maybe drop their seeds on someone else’s lawn.
The yard has not been mowed recently so they are having a field day out there in the field…like an advancing army of stalwart soldiers who just keep fighting to live under impossible odds. They have not been given the right equipment to survive…and yet they flourish like the lilies of the field…neither toiling nor spinning…but just for a brief moment…beautifully arrayed.
Can’t help feeling a kinship with them and although I am rarely beautifully arrayed I do have a tendency to lose my head at the slightest provocation and strew my uprooted feathers all over everything. But I was fortunate in my choice of caretaker whose love and care has enabled me to take root and spin my stories in this very different yet surprisingly fertile field of endless possibilities.*
* Thank you Marta for the Saroyan piece. It stopped me from going over and over and over this and finally sending it out!
Witty! I loved the line about "I too am apt to lose my head..." and the gentle background of the life companion and the engagement. And on behalf of dandelions everywhere, they are loaded with health benefits! https://lifebotanics.com.au/blogs/life-botanics/the-10-health-benefits-of-dandelion
ReplyDeleteThank you!! I looked it up and now I see I've been totally wrong all my life about what a dandelion looks like!! I thought they were those fluffy things that you blow on and it all goes up in the air...now I see it's those pretty orange flowers that are the real dandelions and quite edible...but...what are those feathery things??
ReplyDeletethe feathery things are the dandelions gone to seed! I too love this piece, the kinship with the feathery dandelions
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