Dandelions

Here is a little something that I ran into amongst my things this week.




© Mirselena | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos

Dandelions

 by Marlene Harris Austin

Once, long ago, when dandelions were beautiful flowers and I was pretty whether my hair was combed or my dress was starched and I could still love people even if I spelled it with a "U",  I was happy to be me.
I could dance and run and sing, I could silently watch a stream or sit long hours in a secluded tree. I was happy and I was free.

Then someone kindly informed me that dandelions were weeds. They told me I would only be pretty if my hair were brushed one hundred strokes every day and my dress was clean and ironed and my shoes and socks matched.

Then, I was the prettiest when I had the same color ribbons to wear in my hair, and purse to go with them, and a coat with the right color boots, and then, of course, an umbrella to protect my hundred-stroked, (softly curled- to- subdue- the- look -of- my -somewhat -sharp- features-, cut- in -the- latest- natural- blow-dry-, then -curl- with- a -curling- iron -which- takes -no- less -than- fourty-five- minutes- a -day)styled hair.

Somewhere in the flowering dandelions and the blow dry hairdos, I gave you the power to hurt me. Now I am taking it back.

I will dance and run and sing. I will silently watch a stream. I will sit contently for long hours in a tree, or under a tree, or near a tree, or far from a tree; Or I'll stand by a tree, or I'll lay beneath a tree, or I'll kneel beneath its spreading branches and never once worry about what you would say if you should see me; or what you would think if you didn't find me where you thought that I should be.

I will be me. I will see beauty in a rusy can, and if I don't, I won't. And what you say, one way or the other will not change what I see or what I feel about it.

I will see beauty in me. There is beauty there. And if I do not brush my hair for three weeks, and if I cannot afford the latest boots, I will  still be beautiful to those who care.

And you, you who would not care, From you I relinquish the duty of judging. I am taking that responsibility back and giving it to me.

And since I am taking it back, I plan to change. I plan to pick a bowl of dandelions soon, and make a chain, and curl their stems in water. I plan to stand out in the rain and let my hair curl to a frightful frizz. And I plan to spill some apricot jam off the slice of toast onto my blouse, and not change it all day. and then, perhaps, I'll find that I again can love. And who knows, maybe I'll spell it with an "O" 

Marlene Harris Austin



I put this out there for those who have let their dreams be squashed; who have forgotten how to love themselves (myself included). TAKE YOUR LIFE BACK!  LOVE AS YOU WERE MEANT TO!
LIVE, LAUGH, LOVE, DREAM!