Dandelions and Marches
What do dandelions have in common with young people and the March for Our Lives? It’s not a riddle. They are prolific and beautiful. And they embody strength in numbers. Until yesterday, I was simply going to write about dandelions, one of my favorite weedy medicinal herbs. Dandelions have lots of attributes from healing to tenacity. They grow on every continent except Antarctica and every part of the plant is edible. However, it was dandelion’s method of dispersing seeds that I was thinking about for this post. Every child knows the magic of dandelion seeds. Like tiny parachute spiders, the seeds are caught by the wind and carried to new locations to create new dandelions.
At yesterday’s March, I couldn’t help but notice this connection with the student marchers. It’s barely six weeks since the traumatic event that robbed them of friends and teachers, but their seeds of determination and change have traveled to most parts of the world, dispersed by the magic of the internet. Like the germination of most seeds, success is a combination of healthy seeds finding fertile soil and a friendly environment. All of that seemed to come together yesterday.
Strength in Numbers
Taking inspiration from student marches and dandelions, Strength in numbers is a concept we can work with as a personal mindfulness focus this week. Small communities and indigenous populations have always known strength in numbers. Whether it was gathering food together or raising a barn, their lives depended on it. In our modern world, we sometimes lose sight or our interdependence and the strength that can come from working with others. We can first pay attention to the places strength in numbers is already operating in our lives. Sometimes we take those connections for granted. Stopping to acknowledge how the strength and support of others helps sustains us and how we in turn do that for others can be an intentional focus.
But we might also choose to intentionally cultivate more strength in numbers by reaching out to like minded people and cultivating the seeds that can create a more just and healthy world.
How many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
How many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
How many deaths will it take ’til he knows
That too many people have died? From Bob Dylan’s Blowin’ in The Wind
For more information on mindfulness focus words click here.
Dandelion – (Taraxacum Officinale) – for more information on why dandelions are one of my favorite plants click here.
