Wishes Made

I hope that when you were younger you had the opportunity to walk or run barefoot through a field filled with dandelions on a warm spring afternoon as a gentle breeze whispered upon your skin.

In my youth, I recall walking amongst those bright yellow flowers on an endless backdrop of green. If I paused for a moment, I could hear the bees buzzing from bloom to bloom.

The change that can take place within a couple of days always amazed me. I would walk through this same field and those bright yellow flowers had changed into delicate white puffballs. My eyes would grow wide at the sight and I recall thinking, “Oh look at the wishes waiting to be made!” That is how I viewed that scene in my youth, as wishes waiting to be made.

I reach down and gently pull one from the ground so as not to lose any wishes before I’ve had a chance to give a gentle puff of breath and set them free.

Off the seedlings go, floating upon my breath and that soft breeze that is blowing around you.

I recall watching how high into the air those tiny seedlings would float. I used to ask myself if I should try another one but felt guilty for wanting to wish too many things, I would leave them for the next person to come along and make their own wishes.

What gentle and innocent memories those are for me. The excitement and anticipation of being able to make a wish and watch as they took flight and hoping that they would come true.

Well, here I am decades later having just walked through a field filled with dandelions on a walk with my dog. Two stems catch my eye. As I bend down to get a closer look, I see that one dandelion is a full round puffball and the other is empty, with its head tilted just so, as if they are having a discussion of wishes waiting and wishes that have been made.

When is the last time you knelt to pick a dandelion readying yourself to make a wish?

Can you remember that childlike wonder you felt when those small yellow flowers made their yearly appearance?

Now some may say that dandelions are weeds, but you and I know better don’t we?

There are those that believe that they represent endless possibilities and tenacity; healing from emotional pain or physical injury; intelligence in an emotional or spiritual sense; warmth and power of the rising sun; surviving challenges and difficulties; happiness and of course wishes coming true.

Whatever version you may remember or may have believed once upon a time, I hope that you have had the chance to stop and look in wonder and awe at what nature provides to us throughout each season and I hope that you still have that little bit of wonder in you that lets you set your wishes out upon a soft breeze.