Taking the Scenic Route

Monday August 30, 2004

30th August 2004

Monday August 30, 2004

posted in Uncategorized |

I will let all of you in on a little secret.  I love dandelions.  Love them.  They are by far my favorite flower.  I even tried to plant a pot of them once, but the seeds I used were too inmature to grow. 

I think God has a special place in his heart for dandelions.  They are a great example of how we are supposed to be as Christians.  They bloom where they are planted, even when they are planted in hostile and unwelcoming environments.  They develop the deepest of roots and the complexity and strength of those roots makes them all but impossible to defeat.  A lot of people consider them weeds, despite their persistance and beauty and do anything they can to rid the world of their kind.  When other flowers, considered more beautiful and desirable by the world begin to age, their colors fade and they whither away to nothing.  The dandelion, in contrast, after what appears to be the end of it’s life, reblooms into an even more glorious creation.  It becomes a gossamer globe, flying to the heavens in it’s final glorious journey.  It is the flower most likely to be picked by a child to present to those they love.  Like all prejuduces, a child must be taught to hate them as weeds, worthy only of destruction.

Some day, when we own a home, we will be the crazy neighbors who let the dandelions (and poppies, and clover, and whatever other wildflower that takes root and doesn’t have stickers attached) grow unchecked in our lawn.  I will probably plant native wildflowers in beds around our house and plan to put in native grasses that require no water (unless it is a drought year).  I can admire and appreciate well kept lawns with meticulously planned out landscaping, but I just can’t see myself using all the chemicals and devoting so much time to the endeavor.  There are so many more places I would rather spend time…I would rather sit in the middle of my natural landscape reading a good book or playing with my child than making the lawn bend to my will.  It just isn’t me.  Considering my husband remembers his dad spending hours and taking a lot of pride in his lawn and landscaping (he even ran a landscaping business on the side while being an accountant), it is yet to be seen how he will decide to have his own lawn.  Some things are genetic….I guess we will see if “desire to landscape” is one that Zach got.

Maybe next spring I will try to plant another planter of dandelions.  This time I will make sure to wait until the dandelion is ready to fly away instead of rippng the fluff off the core. The landscaping people already think I am nuts. (in a fit of PMS, I called them and went ballistic about all the little balls of lawn chemicals on my porch.  I made them clean them all up, and then proceded to energetically sweep *all* the chemical balls off the strip of grass in front of my apartment like a madwoman where ds likes to go barefoot).  The planted dandelions would only validate their beliefs.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 30th, 2004 at 5:24 AM and is filed under Uncategorized. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

There are currently 3 responses to “Monday August 30, 2004”

  1. 1 On August 30th, 2004, home.aspx?user=LikeWowMom said:
       

    I love dandelions, too. I have a nice crop in my garden right now. I am debating on whether or not to pick the leaves and put them in a salad. It might be too late in the season. But they haven’t flowered yet. Hmmmm. Ditto on the lawn care.

     
  2. 2 On August 30th, 2004, home.aspx?user=whitecalx said:
       

    I love dandelions too.  The look of a perfectly flat yarn with all the same grass is not appealing to me.  Native grasses sound really nice.

     
  3. 3 On August 31st, 2004, home.aspx?user=home_school said:
       

    Count me in as a dandelion fan!  We love them. My son does love to pick them and give them to me, and he loves when they turn to fluff.

     
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