"Dandy"lions

Why did it have to end?  Why can't dandelion and I be like we used to?  Our relationship was once full of fun, mischief, and laughter.  Can we regain what we've lost?  I don't know, but I'm willing to do my part to bring us back together.........

Once this little, sunny flower meant happy days laying under a summer sky, making glorious crowns of gold, and rubbing each others cheeks to see if we liked butter.  Those days seem like so long ago.  I miss them.  Now, with a yard full of the dandelions, I just seem to find myself annoyed.  I don't like to be annoyed.  It's a negative, joy-sucking parasite that doesn't help anyone.  So I find myself at a crossroads......either I spray my lawn incessantly or I change my attitude.  (I'm not quite sure which would be more difficult.)  One option guarantees grumbling and cussing the cute little plants that came there no fault of their own or I can choose to re-embrace my youthful attitude.  If I can embrace anything youthful, I think now is the time to do it.  So, I chose the latter of the two........or at least I am trying to!

 It's fun to remember how I used to love dandelions - didn't we all.  Even when they were past their prime, they were still fun......fun to blow and watch drift away.  And in some ways, they were still beautiful with their puffy, white heads.  It was always a challenge to try and find the perfect orb with all of it's billowy seeds barely hanging on and quickly blow them all away before the breeze would.  It was fun.  They were fun.  Now the only challenge is to get rid of them before they reach any kind of billowy beauty.

 I also remember thinking about each little individual seed as it launched from it's mother plant.  Wondering how far and where it would go.  Would it end up across the road or miles away?  I would never know and not knowing made it wonderful.  So fun to wonder about things.......

As I sat there taking this picture I was mesmerized by the little seed barely hanging on and I couldn't look away as it did battle with the breeze blowing slightly.  I was surprised at how long it took before the breeze finally set it aloft.

So, after some reflection, I find dandelions much more pleasing.  I think of the joy they've brought me in the past, the metaphors that can be derived from them at the present and I do see a future for us together. A new perspective can cure a lot of ills.  So much of what we find annoying in life can be changed if we only change our attitudes toward them. It's not an easy thing to do, but worth the time and effort. That's the lesson learned from my yard of dandelions.  So when you drive by and wonder why I've let my yard go, no, I'm not ill, not on vacation, and I'm not suffering a nervous breakdown.  I've just been busy adjusting my attitude!!

*Life on the Farm - Boys Need Not Apply