The Wishing Flower

Someone once told me if you were able to blow all the seeds off a dandelion in one breath your wish would come true. I don’t know that I ever succeeded and I am sure our neighbors were happy about that. To them, the less seeds that were spread the better. So much time and money is spent trying to get rid of dandelions. But why?

Growing up in my family  they were not so much something to conquer as something to appreciate. My Italian grandma would love to cook them up with chicken and broth. I thought they tasted bitter but that didn’t keep me from helping her pick them from the yard. That was our time together. They were best picked in the spring before the flowers bloomed. She was an expert at holding a large spoon and digging just deep enough to get the entire plant and roots in one swoop. There was a certain technique to it and I failed at it most of the time. Instead I became her trusty assistant and followed behind with a large paper bag to hold the treasured pickings that some considered a weed. How on earth could anyone consider a dandelion a weed? It is no weed. It is a wishing flower. Sometimes it is a picking flower as well.  When the bright yellow flower has lived its life, then the wishing begins. Kelly, my second oldest daughter, loved those things. If you could not find her, it was because she was in search of wishing flowers so she could blow and blow and wait for her wishes to come true. As she got older the wishing flowers were a bit harder to find in our yard as Kelly’s sister Kristyn found the beauty in the flower itself and made sure she picked bouquets and bouquets for me. How could I ever consider a dandelion a weed? It was clearly a picking flower, and a wishing flower. The girls learned to share and see the beauty in both. So did I.

It’s all about perspective.

Having four children under the age of six was hectic.  We always had places to get to. One day upon our arrival home and as usual running some type of race, I entered the house with no Kelly in tow. I turned back to see Kelly picking a dandelion/wishing flower. Exasperated as I sometimes became, I recall those words even today…those words we all say as parents, “hurry up Kelly, we have to go.” She swiftly picked the wishing flower and then another and began to blow and blow feverishly to get every last seed off before I yelled again, and so her wish would come true. I can still see her puffy cheeks filling up with air and delivering its forceful blows onto those seeds.

That was about 16 years ago.

It was one of those God moments in my life, you know those moments that end up staying etched in your brain forever?

The questions popped into my head or should I say bopped me on the head. What’s your hurry? What is so important? Don’t you know these days will pass like a lightening bolt?

 I stopped, frozen in time for a moment to watch her blow and blow. It all turned to slow motion. The message was clear. Slow down. Smell the flowers. Blow the flowers. Make a wish. I decided I was going to try to be better at slowing down. I don’t know if that wish came true that day for Kelly. Maybe she wished her mommy would not say, “hurry up Kelly” so much.  

Kelly recently turned 21. She attends college in New York City and I don’t imagine she encounters too many wishing flowers there. I asked her recently if she remembered what she wished for those times when she was small. She laughed and said she wasn’t sure but thinks she wished for her wishes to come true. Oh and to be an actress and for her family to be happy. Pretty solid wishes.

Every time since that day whenever I see a wishing flower I think of the day when time froze and I was taught to slow down, by a little girl I loved and of her love for a flower that most see as a weed. Keep those wishes close to your heart Kelly. I know I do. We are all beautiful flowers in God’s eyes. 

There are no weeds.