Dandelions and High School Seniors

May 5, 2008

I’m going to wax poetic for a little bit. It occurred to me last week, as I was driving to work, that life is at times like a dandelion ‘puff’. Do you remember when you were a kid and you would see the dandelion puffs in the yard and you would grab one and give it a blow and those seeds just scattered where ever the breeze would carry them. As children we didn’t realize that we were spreading the seeds of a weed and if the truth be known, we didn’t care. It was pretty and those little seeds could really fly a long way only to come back to earth and plant its self so that a new plant would grow and the cycle would continue.

I’ve been scattered quite a few times. People that have blown in and out of my life or drifted in and out come to mind. Sometimes I will suddenly think of someone I knew when I was in kindergarten in California, or I will recall something that occurred during my college days. Watching TV or listening to radio will stir up memories of people that have long ago moved on. Sometimes it’s just faces that I recall and other times I recall a name but can’t pull up a face. Sometimes it’s family members that have passed on. Sometimes it is friends that get scattered.

I learned a couple of weeks ago that one of my newer friends had been offered a plum that she richly deserves. There are many reasons why I will hate to see her move on but I understand completely about advancement in the job market. It has just been so nice to work with a fellow creative person whose “pallet may seem to be a couple of bricks shy of a load” like I’ve been accused of. Another person just drifting through my life.

I look at the graduating seniors this year and those little dandelions are about to get scattered all over the place. They are scrambling to finish their tests and get their invitations mailed out and put the finishing touches on college applications and scholarships. I’ve been caught up in that whirlwind with my daughter as she goes here and there, writing this essay and making that interview. She worked hard during the 10 years I home schooled her and these last 2 years in public school. There were times during those 10 years that I would start doubting myself and my ability, but as I see the accomplishments that she has made, I know that I gave her a strong educational background. Would I make the same decision to homeschool if I had it to do over again? In a heart beat I surely would.

Now back to those dandelions. I called them a weed but to some folks they aren’t. The dandelion is a pretty versatile plant. The bright green new leaves are good for making a fresh salad from. You can make Dandelion wine from the bright yellow blossoms. You can make a ‘tonic’ from the leaves that is a natural diuretic. A little of that tonic will ‘clean out’ the old system! You can even make syrup from the blossoms for your pancakes. Roasting the roots and grinding them up made a coffee substitute. There is a lot of good in the common old dandelion, so it’s a good thing that it’s pretty little puff balls get blown to the 4 corners of the earth. Our kids are getting ready to be scattered like those dandelion seeds. Come graduation night, they will grab that prized diploma and toss that mortar board up in the air and then its off to new destinations and new experiences. There is going to always be something new on the horizon as they drift around and then settle to earth. It’s a very uncertain world that we are turning over to our kids. Let’s just hope and pray that they will be better stewards of it than the past generations have been.