Dandelion Dreams

When I was about seven years old my family was on a road trip through Yellowstone National Park. As we drove down winding mountain roads, and through desolate prairies, I happened to see a little dandelion (taraxacum) on the side of the road. Something about that dandelion struck me and I told myself to never forget that image of that dandelion. Bright and beautiful in the sun, stretching over the curbside and into the road.

I never did forget that dandelion.

Now, as an adult, I take my dogs on one of three or four different routes every day. Each route walks past a neighbor’s house who, during late spring, has a big patch of candytuft (Iberis.) One year I walked past and saw a dandelion starting to emerge from the center of the patch. It was tightly bound together with just a little yellow tip sticking out from the green bundle.

My neighbors can be quick to yard work, and I assumed it would be gone within a day, but the next day it was still there and starting to open.

It was interesting to see this little yellow blip in a sea of white and green. I thought about the single dandelion seed, floating through the air on its filamented parachute, searching for the right conditions. It pushed through the canopy of candytuft just to survive, daring in its position, likely to be torn from the ground at any moment. It sought to survive.

I thought a lot about dandelions.

Did you know that dandelions, if consumed, can provide antioxidants and potassium? They are also known to be high in vitamin A, C, K, E, folate, and some B vitamins. They help with inflammation, blood pressure, blood sugar regulation, cholesterol, wight loss, digestion, liver health, and can improve your immune system. Dandelions are great in tea, soup, fried, juiced, and can be made into pie, jelly, or wine. You can eat the flower, the stem, the leaves, and the root.

Bees love dandelions. Each flower contains thousands of grains of pollen.

Dandelions represent the sun and is a symbol for friendship.

Children make wishes on dandelion before scattering them to the wind.

Candytuft only contains hundreds of grains of pollen.

Candytuft is beautiful and easy to grow, but mildly poisonous to humans and animals. If the bitter plant is ingested in large quantities it can cause nausea and vomiting.

In the language of flowers a candytuft bouquet means indifference.

A bouquet of dandelions means faithfulness, happiness, hope, healing, transformation, and resilience.

I walked by my neighbor’s dandelion five different days before I stopped to take a picture. The hope, the happiness, and the resilience, in a sea of indifference, was stunningly beautiful to me.

I framed the picture and put it on my shelf to remember the little dandelion that worked so hard to stand out.

We push the dandelion away. We tear it from the ground, poison it, curse it, banish it from our yards and it still persists. Its beauty is disgraced by its resilience. It only wants to help.

Instead, we embrace the beauty of indifference and cherish it for its ability to – exist?

When that dandelion finally transformed into a globe of seeds ready to be taken into the air by the wind I plucked it from the ground and carried it with me to a safe space of empty fields. I cherished the beauty of its life span and blew.

I wished to be a dandelion. Persistent, happy, healthy, beautiful, and resilient to the toxins we are surrounded by in life.

The next time you see a dandelion I hope that you might remember this story and don’t be so quick to snuff out the joyous potential it holds.

Long live resilience. Long live happiness. Long live hope, transformation, and healing.

Long live the dandelion.