In the Weeds

I've been wanting to post this scrapbook layout for a while and just kept forgetting. Then, this morning, while reading Christa's Photography Blog, I received my inspiration.

I think we've all been "in the weeds" sometimes, in desperate need of something, ANYTHING, to give us guidance.

Last summer, I took this dandelion photo at a tourist lookout point on our way home from Norris Point. I was feeling discouraged one day and sat down in my scrapbooking chair, my creative outlet, and pulled out the photo. I began thinking about this simple dandelion - if I could just see past it's nuisance - what else would it represent?

Beauty, for one. If other flowers can be yellow and beautiful then why not this one? My photo would have been quite dull with just the stone and grass. But the gold of that dandelion sticking out in contrast, that's what made the picture! How dull our lives would be if we only had a nice comfortable carpet of grass nestled among the security of a stone wall? I'm sorta thinkin' we need a few dandelions once in a while.

Secondly, I was reminded of perserverance. No matter how many times we pull out those weeds from our garden, they always reappear. They don't give up. How many of us, when faced with the dandelions of life, just throw our hands up and say, "Woe is me!"? Most days, it seems we'll never get rid of the weeds. We need to be like the weeds - we need to fight to stay in the garden where we belong!

And thirdly, I thought of how humble the dandelion is. A dandelion doesn't care where it is - "adorning ditch or rich man's grave". Whatever situation it finds itself in, it blossoms anyways. It doesn't only grow in grand gardens fit for a queen, with caretakers to attend to it. It feels equally at home dotting the sides of a dirt road, being seen by few and appreciated by even fewer. Sometimes, if we would just humble ourselves, we would find ourselves growing so much more, reaching out to people so much more, living our lives to the fullest so much more.

And so, my thoughts to you this morning would be (there I go sounding like a sermon again...lol), don't be discouraged, take inspiration from a little weed, keep your face to the sunshine, and GROW grow grow like nobody's business!

If you'd like to read, here's my poem:

To You, Dandelion

To you, O Dandelion gold!

Upon thy bloom my eyes behold.

Sent by God in field alone,

To beautify a wall of stone.

While others mayhap pass you by,

And looking on your face do sigh,

I see your roots hold in the storm,

When from your grassy home are torn.

Your flowers never seek to change,

Adorning ditch or rich man's grave.

You see no care for grand display

When set upon the fields of May.

You never keep a thought of ill,

tho' seldom poised on windowsill.

You simply grow from where you lay

To praise your maker all the same.

- Written by Myrna Hynes

February 17, 2009