Consider The
Dandelion
a life lesson
Greeting the Golden
Girls of Spring!
Years ago, on a lovely sunny spring
day as I was driving down our local
dual carriage way I remember
being wowed by the golden sea of
plants that sprung up all along the
embankment. It was one of the first
plants that announced that winter
was past and spring had begun, it
was golden daffodils. So, as I came to
the intersection I was able to examine
the area of the verge nearest to me
and there among the daffodils just
as beautiful and glamorously golden
were dandelions! At a glance you
couldn’t tell the difference but upon
closer inspection one realised that
the daffodils were not alone they
were infiltrated by dandelions.
Y
As I was pondering the beautiful sea
of golden delight, I heard the voice of
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April - June 2018
the Lord say to me… “Consider the
dandelions” I knew then that I was
in for a lesson from these so called
pesky weeds. This lesson was a long
time in coming as I am writing this
article years later and I’ve become
very acquainted with dandelions over
this learning period and now view
them with awe and feel it is a great
injustice to dismiss them as weeds. you are in for quite a fight. Weeds by
definition do not produce anything
useful but spread rapidly, take over
and use up needed nutrients or
actually become a parasite sucking
and killing productive plants. The
dandelions are guilty of all charges
here but even so, there is much to
be learned from the worthy foe of a
weed.
So then let me take you along my
learning journey. Daffodils and
dandelions both have the same
beautiful golden yellow and in a sea
of gold they are just as alluring! So
what makes one a weed and the
other a coveted flower? The Characteristic of
the dandelion
1. Deliberate design. If you don’t
believe me ask any gardener how
difficult it is to pull out a dandelion
from a flower bed or garden path.
To reinforce my point try removing
a daffodil and you will see the
difference. It is no where near as
difficult as removing a dandelion!
The definition of a weed
I don’t know who decides but one
thing I can tell you is this... if you
ever try to get rid of the dandelions