A Single Dandelion

I was co-teaching in a first grade classroom the other day and we had the students take the iPads outside to take pictures of evergreen and deciduous trees.  Instead of having them just draw a picture of the tree and labeling it on a piece of paper, they were going to create a digital story using the pictures they take with the iPad camera and then record their voices talking about each picture!  Demonstrating comprehension in a fun and an engaging way... this is why I LOVE TEACHING!!!

Anyway, a little boy came up to me when we were outside and hands me a dandelion. Now, to you and me a dandelion is just a yellow weed growing in the lawn, but to this little boy it was a beautiful yellow flower!  He hands it to me and says, "This beautiful flower is for you Mrs. Taxson!  I love you!"  Let's all say it together now....awwwwww!  Yeah...he really said that!  I of course responded with, "Thanks buttercup! I love you too!"  Now this prompted another little 6-year-old to hand me a dandelion, and then another and then another.  We obviously got a bit sidetracked in our lesson and before I knew it a little girl shouted, "Look how much we love Mrs. Taxson!  The flowers keep falling out of her hand!"  I looked down and sure enough my "flowers" were overflowing right out of my hand!

This got me thinking.  Some of us see what we have as weeds, and others see them as flowers.  It's all about perspective.  I was in a pretty good mood even before working with this class, but my heart was so full and my smile so big by the time I left. Who would have thought that a single dandelion...a weed...would have made my day brighter and better!

Some days when you get yet another failed pregnancy test or go through another failed infertility treatment, it's really hard to look at the world with rose colored glasses or see the yellow 'flowers' in the grass. My bouquet of 'flowers' came at the perfect time as I wait and wait to see if I get into my infertility clinic's IVF study. Sometimes the waiting can be the worst.  We wait during our 2 wait weeks, we wait for our cycle to start so we can start yet another treatment hoping that this one will work, we wait the 3-5 minutes for the pregnancy test results, we wait for our baby to be conceived...we get used to waiting.

Today though the sunlight was shining strong, and my agonizing waiting perspective changed...even if for just a brief moment. As I held my yellow flowers, I remembered the times I picked 'flowers' for my mom and how she would always put them in vases around the house. Then I imagined my 'child' picking flowers for me. I thought about all the things I would teach my child about life and love and perspective.  I thought about all the good that was still in the world and how to never give up on our hopes and dreams.  It was like a fast movie playing in my head...you know the scene that happens right as the person is falling to their death (ok bad analogy...but you get the point!) I thought all of these things in that brief moment as I looked down at my hand and saw it over-pouring with love from all the these wonderful 6-year-olds. How can you have a bad day after that?  You can't! :)

I never thought a single dandelion could change my life, but it did! So here's to all the dandelions in the world! May you see them as beautiful yellow flowers like a 6-year-old does and not an ugly weed like most adults do!