Dandelion Wisdom

"The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes."

Marcel Proust

Here's what my horoscope for today said:
"All you need is love. Bring it to the front and give it top priority. Then spread it around."

I feel like lately I've been really in tune with a universal message to open my eyes and my heart and my mind to all the good that is around me. To show love, feel gratitude, and share hope is to feel the connection that unites each of us on this planet.

The message is plentiful in the daily blogs I read. Like today over at Honor Yourself, Terri wasn't feeling so good still she got this great insight from staring at her bowl of oatmeal. As she began thinking about some friends who were facing big health issues, she stopped thinking about her own sore throat, and moved from there right onto gratitude. I don't know about you, but when I don't feel good, I start acting just like a little kid... life is all about me and my comfort. I don't think I could ever get to a place where I am grateful that my throat feels like it's on fire and little razor blades are poking in it! But Terri did, and when I read about it I could feel the "Yes"!

At Bedlam Farm somewhere in NY, Jon Katz is battling a long, cold winter. He writes about things that would make me weep - temperatures in the minus column, broken pipes and rebellious sheep. Yet every day he and his dogs willingly venture out into their icy world to discover "an awful winter can be beautiful." Jon is a writer and photographer. Unlike me, he's doesn't like to bitch about how cold he is on a continual basis. (I'm menopausal and live in Florida - I suffer at the opposite end of the thermometer.) He looks for and finds the beauty of the sun's light glistening off a frozen droplet of water. " (Thomas) Paine reminded me that so many people have survived so much worse than I face on the worst day, and that is a good perspective," Katz wrote today. Sharing that perspective makes me want to keep it going.


Sorrow over at http://walklabyrinth.blogspot.com/ wrote yesterday of the difficulty in being present and grateful for the blessings we have now and not scared about the future. Let's face it, the future is looking a little glum these days and it's hard not to go into panic mode. I've found panic mode totally erases gratitude. So Sorrow bakes cakes with/for her kids and plays with clay to produce really cool (though decidedly strange) mugs. In doing so she not only "find(s) humor, and a place of peace in the eye of the storm," she makes people like me smile. Smiling erases panic mode.



With all this on my mind, I took advantage of a pretty day. I said the magic word, "Walk" to dog, grabbed her leash and my camera and headed out into the neighborhood. While Beauty sniffed every bush between here and the end of the street I searched the old neighborhood for new sights. I discovered this patch of dandelions. In the middle of dried up leaves and bushes turned black from a recent freeze, this one tenacious weed bloomed like it was queen of the world.


People are kind of like dandelions, aren't they? They grow where they were planted. They go through life trying to be their best selves, doing what they were meant to do. They are strong and resilient. They don't know they are weeds until it is pointed out to them by the snub of the well-manicured lawn. Yet like this little beauty, on a good day, they just can't help turning their faces to the sun and smile even the world around them is kind of icky.


Feeling the love and spreading it around,
Merry ME