Today woke up to a beautiful blue sky accented with bleached cotton boll clouds floating freely, spaced out, being careful to not bump into each other. The sun was warm and bright even though early morning was cold. I still see the six little dandelion blooms, bright yellow, pushing up through the brown oak leaves covering the ground, worshipping the morning sun. I don’t know how they keep going in this wintertime. I’m sure they carry God’s smiles.

Well, it’s 8:30 at night and I have no thoughts and no words. Today has run away from me. I honestly thought today was Sunday…been confused all week about what day it’s been. My life was so scheduled when I was in the working world. Now four years of retirement and I still have no schedule or conception of time or week day. Maybe Shady Oaks will schedule me. I hope not!

Maybe I should write about the bright yellow dandelion and her multi-petalled blooms of sunshine. Dandelions are tough little plants, grow any where regardless of soil conditions, tolerate frost and freezes, even heat and lack of moisture won’t kill them. Each plant produces 15,000 viable seeds, little white hairy umbrellas that dance on the wind and pirouette in the breeze. Lots of seeds pushed aloft by the breath and the wishes of children.

Dandelions can represent hopes and dreams, symbolizing the innocence and freedom of childhood. “When you look at a field of dandelions you either see a field of weeds or a field full of a hundred wishes.” This quote of unknown origin reminds us how our perspective affects our daily life. God drops a few pebbles on our path and we can view them positively, as stepping stones on our journeys, or look at the pebbles negatively, as something to stumble on, slowing our progress.

We all have the choice of seeing the positive or the negative in any situation. The sunny yellow dandelions hold their heads up and bloom through whatever life throws their way. As Christians we have God to lead us through the trials of life. He lights the dark days, sends us rainbows of joy after the storms, holds our hands when our path gets rocky, catches us when we trip and fall.

You see dandelions growing in cracks in the sidewalks, in places where it seems impossible. They sink their roots so deep even mowing doesn’t deter them. God wants us to grow and bloom wherever we’re planted. He wants us to have deep roots of faith, growing in places where we can share God’s words, helping others bloom with their Christian faith.

As Christians we are called to spread the word of God like the seeds of the dandelions transported far and wide on the earth’s breezes. Our seeds of faith can carry the gospel of God and be symbols of hope for others. We need to be a dandelion in God’s soil, blooming where God plants us, scattering his seeds of everlasting love.

“Beautiful as a dandelion-blossom golden in the green grass, this life can be.” — Edna St. Vicente Millay