The resilience of Dandelion
Our monthly plant story, this month its the misfit, the symbol of activism and the resilient healer.
“Dandelions don’t tell no lies…” - Mick Jagger
“In a world full of roses, stand out like a dandelion in the middle of a green, plush lawn!” ― June Stoyer
“The man who worries morning and night about the dandelions in the lawn will find great relief in loving the dandelions.” ― Liberty Hyde Bailey
Hello, here is our monthly plant story, and this month, it’s dandelion, has anyone noticed them beginning to peek up above the earth yet?
To me, there is no greater sign of hope, of wild resistance and resilience, than the dandelion growing amid the concrete.
As a child, I felt a sense of wonderment for the vibrant and happy quality that shines from Dandelions - Proud, loud, upright and beautiful, a splash of golden suns amid an otherwise tame lawn or even tamer concrete patio, pavement or carpark. I loved how, as the days went by, those suns formed into silver full moons, that scattered in the wind, like stars across the sky. Reminding me of a couple of the old common names for dandelion - scatterseed and wish ball.
When seeing a dandelion growing in the crack of concrete or the monoculture lawn, I have often found myself wondering, if they are blown in on the wind, or did a person, gripping dandelions hollow green stem, make a wish, forming the plant that grew from the wished upon seed, to be half wild medicine spirit, half prayer.
And what greater prayer is there, than wanting more aliveness in the grey, rewilding the deadening to life.