Creating Wonder
Taking something, overlooked, and even considered a nuisance and transforming it into something extraordinary is a magical experience. This is where the simple word, Wow, is welcome. I encountered the wonder of transforming an ordinary thing into something awe-inspiring by making a simple Dandelion Garland.
Before you stop reading, let me explain.
I was scrolling through Facebook reels, a compulsively bad habit when I came across a video: How to make a magical garland using post-bloomed dandelions. I watched the 30-second reel in amazement. The dandelion bud opened into a perfectly round ball of soft white fluff called a pappus.
As I heard, “Such a garland creates a beautiful and magical experience for young and old alike,”
I was convinced. I got up from the couch shaking off the feeling of a scrolling trance. I walked to the kitchen. Kneeling down I retrieved a brown Tupperware bowl from the cupboard. I walked to the counter to set it down while I searched through the catch-all drawer for a pair of scissors. Finding a pair of kindergarten blades with a blunted edge I shrugged, concluding this would have to do. I looked at the clock glowing 8:05 P.M. The sun was setting, as I opened the sliding glass door. The smell of a blossoming lilac bush filled the warm balmy air of our backyard. I love that fragrance. My eyes settled on the unruly patch of growth, we call prairie grass just beyond the cement pad. I have reasoned that we live in the country, so no one has to see it. But tonight I smile maybe for the first time, happy to see the long dandelions softly blowing in the evening breeze.
I hear the splash and laughter from Judah’s first swim of the season in our above-ground pool Brad had just finished filling with water from the garden hose.
“It’s cold!” I hear Judah say.
As I crouch down clipping the heads off the dandelions. I am only using the ones that have already bloomed and are closed with white fluff showing at the top. They have yet to open to seed. I drop them into the bowl I carry. 1-2-3- all the way to 35. Feeling this number is sufficient I go back to the kitchen table. Opening my baggy of needles and thread I pick up the line pointing its tip toward the tiny opening in the needle. I squint, I lick the end of the thread with my tongue to try to help it go through the eye. Finally, I put down the needle and thread to find Brad’s readers +/-2mm. (They aren’t mine, I’m still in denial). I cheer with success as I pull the pale yellow thread through the eye of the needle. Tipping the green bud over I poke the needle through the little hole at the base of the dandelion and pull the thread through the flower then gently slide it down the line to the bottom of the string, then repeat. My fingers feel sticky and smell of grass.
Brad: “Dianne what are you doing with those dandelions?”
Me: “You’ll see, something magical is going to happen.”
I proudly and carefully take the homemade garland to Judah’s room. Lydia has one end and I have the other. We try to pin it to the wall but realize the stool from Judah’s kiddy table is too short. Placing my end carefully on the carpet I go to retrieve a chair from the kitchen table. I feel the burn in my biceps as I heft the chair down the hall. I wonder to myself, maybe I should work out more. Finally pushing it as close to the wall as I can I stand stretching the garland as high as my arms will reach. We laugh at my efforts because the flowers weigh it down so much the garland looks like a jump rope used for double-dutch.
“Brad!” I call. Can you help us?”
After 25 years of marriage, I can sometimes overlook Brad’s physique until moments like this. Standing on the chair I give him a little love pat as he takes my jump rope to new heights. He is just pinning it to the wall when Judah knocks it out of his hand with a sailing stuffed animal.
“Judah!” I say exasperated. Then realize the whole point of this garland is to share in the wonder of nature.
Softening my voice to something more patient I explain, “Judah, if you knock down the garland we won’t get to see the surprise tomorrow.”
To my relief, he comes to understand the garland is not meant to be a volleyball net for his stuffie.
The garland is hung in a few short minutes and bedtime stories resume. I smile, proud of myself. I actually got to be a kid again. I made a craft out of something completely ordinary and I couldn’t wait to see what would become of it.
In the early morning light, there it was—the garland of fluffy white fairy orbs strung in a single line from one wall to the other.
“Wow!” each family member said as they visited the site.
How did I go all these years without knowing dandelions could be strung up like this?
In life, we can be blinded to the beauty ordinary things can bring us. I have despised dandelions in my yard for years. Sometimes we have even paid for professionals to take care of the weeds. They were only viewed as a problem until this spring. On a daily basis, Judah came to me with a handful of these lemon-colored flowers and a bashful look in his eye. He did not see the tall yellow flowers dotting our front lawn as a weed problem. Plucking the bountiful blooms allowed him to share something pretty with his mother.
“The common dandelion is a perennial, herbaceous plant that forms a rosette of leaves with a yellow flower cluster rising from the center. ”
Though to many, including myself, this plant can be viewed as a hindrance to a beautiful lawn, it has surprising health benefits. The leaves can be boiled and consumed like spinach. The leaves can also be cut for a salad of valuable vitamins and minerals. The dandelions can also be used to make an herbal tea.
All of these qualities are great but what I have learned is even more simple. Dandelions gave me the opportunity to create wonder, and for that gift, I can only say….
WOW!
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