About Beautiful Yellow Flowers

"Beautiful Yellow Flowers"

I met Abby during my years as household coordinator for Sarah's...an Oasis for Women, a Ministry of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, St. Paul Province.  She came to the United States seeking asylum from Ethiopia, leaving behind her family, friends, culture and so much more - and she brought them with her changing forever how I see the world in so many ways.

One beautiful spring afternoon she returned from her English classes and found me working in the yard at Sarah's.  We visited under a brilliant sapphire blue sky while scanning the neighborhood.  After a few minutes she asked, "how come we have so many beautiful yellow flowers in our yard and these (her eyes scanned the neighborhood) are only green?"  That was the day we talked about the word weed,  how it means any plant that grows where someone does not want it to grow and how many people decide that the dandelion is a weed.

At that time, we chose not to kill the dandelions in the yard at Sarah's because of the cost to the environment, the cost to humans and animals who are impacted by the toxic nature of most weed killers available at that time.  Abby and I decided that dandelions are flowers, NOT weeds!  I also explained that our choice not to kill them probably meant some people in the neighborhood with very green yards wished we would kill them so the seeds would not take flight in the wind and threaten the manicured green "beauty" of their lawns.

Our conversation also reminded me again of my childhood when dandelions were a welcomed sign of spring - when we made beautiful amazing dandelion necklaces and bracelets and fat bouquets that filled out little hands and gleefully presented to our moms and grammas and teachers.  We also rubbed the flower on our cheeks to "put the sun there" for all to see.  Like Abby we saw spring beauty.

I just looked out my den window and discovered that on this very very cool spring Saturday morning, all that is growing with any intensity are beautiful brilliant yellow dandelions - and the less vibrant but equally tenacious lavender creeping charlie, another "weed," yikes! 

Yesterday as and friend and I took a drive into the country, we noticed dandelions abundantly gracing lawns and farm fields and cemeteries and road ditches.  But we didn't see any children gathering them into bouquets or making necklaces or bracelets out of them.

Since meeting Abby I am wonderfully reminded of days gone by when dandelions were a sign of spring bring joy and no one I knew considered them weeds.