A Dandelion is Not a Flower
Avery Wood
If you were a flower, my friend, then you would probably be a dandelion. Well actually, if we’re getting technical a dandelion isn’t even a flower really but more like a weed. Perhaps that’s what makes being a dandelion so special.
Nevertheless, if you were a dandelion you would be the one in the very center of the field. The dandelion with the most sunshine and the company of all the surrounding dandelions wrapped around you like a blanket of warmth and love.
If you were a dandelion, you wouldn’t be the dandelion who is rushed away by the wind with the rest. No, you would be the one who gets plucked up by a bright-eyed little girl with beautiful dreams and wishes for the future. She’d wish for a better world and with your special powers, you would be able to grant that wish. And then she will send you off with the wind.
If she sent you off with the wind you would probably travel to far-off places. You would see the most beautiful castles and sculptures. You would hear music from all over the world, just as you always dreamed about. Music would be even sweeter accompanied by the chorus of the wind and rustling trees of forests long forgotten. You would fly over all of it and collect stories from all corners of the world.
If you were to collect stories from all over the world, I reckon I would be pretty jealous. You see, I’ve not seen much of the world or heard its stories. I know only of our home where the trees are still and the music is quiet. The birds sing the same songs over and over again and the people are interchangeable. Kind but the same. And I know that seeing the same things every day can be quite boring, especially for a dandelion made for so much more. You had your family of course, and leaving them to travel on the wind alone must have been frightening and strange. But I bet you are finally where you have always longed to be. I hope that means never staying in one place.
If you never stayed in one place, I bet you would be able to smell all kinds of things. Cool and crisp smells like the meadow back home where everything began. But hopefully new smells too. I hope you get to smell the salt from the ocean. God, how we both loved the ocean. The sound of the waves crashing and the seagulls barking and the sunny smiles of everyone there. And sweet things too, like a chocolate shop in Paris or Rome. I want you to smell all the most wonderful smells in the world and I hope that those smells can leave the past behind.
If those smells could leave the past behind then maybe you can have a truly fresh start. I’m not quite sure how a dandelion does it but I assume the different fluffy bits land all over the globe and become new dandelions. I would want that for you. To have a fresh start somewhere new. You never liked having too many roots and were always so eager to fly away. Whether it was abroad or a simple trip to the lakes up north. I think the dandelion equivalent would just be to fly away and hope you land somewhere new and exciting.
If you were to land somewhere new and exciting, I’m quite sure your colors would change. Brightening in the summer sun and shifting in the cool breeze. I hope you see the sun a lot. You never liked it when I teased you about being too pale. But mostly I hope you get to feel the brisk snow without wilting away in the cold. Seeing the glistening pure white snow always lit a special spark in your eyes. I would hate to see that go away, even as a dandelion who, now that I’m thinking about it, doesn’t even have eyes.
If the spark ever left your eyes, I would be very very sad. For you are my friend and I shall always want nothing more than to see you smile. But if you were ever unhappy I would fly to wherever you might be staying at the time and I would remind you about all the lovely places you have been and all the lovely pieces of yourself you have left for the world to forever cherish. See, there is simply no other flower with such power. And certainly no other flower, or weed, with such magical properties as well. The power to grant wishes.
Such magical properties can only be passed on through family. The magic in your family flows strong and steady. Each member holds the power to grant any wish, just like the other dandelions. And for as long as I can remember, you and your family have not let a single person down with your magic.
If you were a dandelion I hope your dandelion family would be ok. I don’t know what it is like to be separated from the people you love. You were the first to go on your journey and I doubt such things are normal. Usually, the oldest and tallest and strongest dandelions get plucked up and sent on their journey. But there you were little and sparkling and perfect and I have to believe the little girl just simply couldn’t help herself.
But because that little girl just couldn’t help herself, we all had to say goodbye. You had to begin that journey alone across the world. Leaving only pieces of yourself in your wake. The rest of us are at home, waiting for our time so we can one day maybe see each other again, crossing paths on our own grand journies. That wouldn’t be too scary.
But because you are not a dandelion, it is scary. I do not wish to say goodbye to my friend. I do not wish for you to start that lonely journey so young. I do not wish for you to leave us, your family, all alone waiting for our own time to see you once again. It is simply not fair.
And maybe it’s not fair because a dandelion is different. Because dandelions are special and unique. Maybe it’s because a dandelion is not a flower at all.
No, a dandelion is not a flower. It is so much more.