What do Dandelions know that I don’t?

Let’s talk about dandelions, Taraxacum Officinale. My favorite flower since I was a small child. The flower that nobody liked. As a kid, I loved seeing them growing in the grass, it was so pretty, the bright yellow on the green lawn. I especially loved it when the grass was full of them. I could not understand why people were always trying to kill them.

This was a flower I was allowed to pick, make bouquets with and collect. I remember picking them in the front yard to “save them” from my Dad. The good intention was there anyways.

As an adult, I still like them. I still think they are pretty. But I am a little more philosophical about it. Not that I don’t pick a bouquet when I have the chance.

Think about the dandelion. This is a flower that yearns to live and grow. “Damn hard to get rid of” as my Dad would say. We dig them out by the roots or poison them, and still they come back, spotting the grass with little yellow blooms. We put cinder blocks over them to make a sidewalk and they will pop up in the cracks. It’s like they don’t know, or don’t care that they are under attack. They are just doing their thing.

When it is time for them to die, there is no ugliness, no hard pieces to hurt your feet when you walk barefoot on the lawn. They just change to a white, soft puff ball, and when the wind is just right, their seeds and their DNA are blown up in the air. Wherever they land, a new flower will grow.

What if we had even some of these qualities? What if, in a world that thought we were ugly and unwanted, we could see our own beauty? What if we had the strength to stand up and come back from our defeats, as beautiful and strong as we were before? What if obstacles in our path were simply things we needed to either go around, or go through? What if when we were old and done, we sat at peace, knowing that our lives had meant something and we were leaving a legacy?

I believe that in recovery we have a responsibility to keep learning. The knowledge we get from sources such as AA, NA, OA, Smart Recovery, counselling, therapy, social media, podcasts etc., is invaluable. We would not make it without these resources. But sometimes can we learn lessons and be inspired by the simple things right in front of us, like a silly little flower? from flowers that have been there all along?