I don't make a whole lot of sense right now, but hopefully, but the end of this blog- you'll either be enlightened, and feel as though it "finally made sense," or you'll be even more confused and decide you've had all you can handle of crazyCatholicmomma.... It's ok. Some days, I feel the same way, too.....
This morning my religious ed class and about 50 other kiddos had their First Communion. It was a beautiful Mass and the children looked amazing. I was definitely moved by it all as I prayed for each one of the kiddos in my class. I prayed they would always be able to receive communion, every day if they so desired. I prayed that their parents would teach them the absolute truth about the Catholic faith, despite their own personal opinion (which sometimes tends to drown out the truth) and let their child/children decide for themselves how to handle the truths of the Church. I prayed for the ones who never attended Mass, basically until today, that somehow, a head to heart connection would happen and that the Holy Spirit would light a fire in their hearts and the desire to learn about the Church would ignite. It happened to me a million years ago, so I know it can happen to anyone....
After Mass, I drove home listening to my music and just enjoying the amazing view on the drive home. You see, winter was extremely long here. Extremely long......I mean, extreeeeeeeeeemely long....Throw in one more extremely and it will almost describe the winter we had.
But now, the beauty of spring is abounding. Flowering trees, green grass, birds, blue skies, and above all else, warmth. Natural warmth. Nice, shiny, big, yellow sun, warmth. It is beautiful.
Something else I also noticed today while driving home was something that most people find rather annoying, and spend lots of money to get rid of and complain about the constantly.....
Dandelions.....
It really kind of caught me off guard what popped into my head. It had actually been on my mind the night before as I worked in my flower garden, but didn't come to fruition until this morning....
Life is too short to worry about the dandelions.....
I have a neighbor who hates weeds. I think she really doesn't like us either, and perhaps lumps us into weeds, but I remember a conversation I had with her about my yard. She likes to tell me things I should do to my yard. I can't blame her. My yard looks like crap. I mean, seriously, I have SEVEN children. I can assure anyone who asks, that my yard is the LAST thing I'm going to spend a great deal of time worrying about.....but weeds were a hot topic this specific conversation we had. She does not like dandelions and I felt she was telling me this because my yard is full of them, and of course, how are dandelions spread? The lovely white seeded flower part that most of us as kids, remember picking and blowing - there by aiding in the distribution of there forever being an endless supply of dandelions in our world..... So, I'm almost certain that she was expressing her dislike of these annoying weeds to me because of the fact that sooner or later, my children were going to blow those seeds right into her yard and she would continue to have to have her yard serviced with a fantastic chemical to kill these beasts!
I think back to that conversation and others like it that I've had about similar "dislikes." Whether it was weeds, or illness, or cranky New York drivers, or taxes, or yard work, or whatever the dislike, we all have them. Dislikes. Things that annoy us. Things that bother us, whether external or internal. Whether something that directly affects us, or affects those we love....
Dandelions.
To some, these amazingly yellow flowers are nothing more than an annoying weed that strangely has the root system of a one hundred year old tree.....
To others, these flowers represent our childhood. Visiting Grandma. Sitting on the swing set at the park. Picking a "bouquet" to give to Mom after playing all day outside....
Regardless of how we feel about dandelions, one thing is certain. Dandelions, just like everything else, are passing. Sure, we've seen the fields that seem to have boundless amounts of dandelions. The fields that are so full they basically look like they were painted yellow. But too soon, summer ends, the dandelions die, and winter takes over again.....and the dandelions are gone again until the next year thaw.....
I'm not sure I'm making sense right now, but looking at the dandelions on my drive home from First Communion Mass hit me very nostalgically. I was brought back to my own First Communion in 1981. I still remember pictures of me with my super boy style hair cut. Some of the pictures even had dandelions on the ground. My grandma's house was on the east side of Knoxville, TN. I am guessing not too many people in her neck of the woods worried too much about the weeds in their yards and probably not many at all wasted any money on having a company come spray and get rid of them....
Now, before anyone gets offended, my disclaimer is that if you enjoy spending money quarterly to have your grass look like it should be on the cover of Southern Living, more power to you.... I used to get my yard sprayed as well, and before I had kids, and realized most were poisonous yuck that could be affecting my environment, kids, and dogs, I loved seeing a super green yard that looked like carpet. Even those who use all natural, organic sprays, more power to you as well..... end of disclaimer...
My grandma would have little cups just waiting for my sister and I to bring her the latest find in the flowery field of weeds in her yard. Whether it was buttercups, dandelions, or these tee tiny little purple flowers she had all over, or those white flowers- can't think of the name of them either, but there was always a plethora of flowers to be picked and plopped in her cups. And she always seemed genuinely thrilled that we brought her flowers....
As I was driving and reminiscing about my grandma's yard and my first communion, another thought struck me. Maybe a slightly more morbid thought, but a thought nonetheless.
We can't take our perfectly manicured lawns with us to Heaven. Our goal is not to teach our yard all about Jesus and His gift to us. Our yard won't care either way if we spray it this year and don't next year and quite honestly, neither will God.
What will matter is what did we do to make our world a better place? Better than when we found it? What did we do to bring Christ to all those around us? How did we live our lives? Did people notice us in a good way, or did they notice us in a bad way?
But the one thing I most definitely realized is that, life is too short to worry about the dandelions.
By that, I mean, simply, complaining about all those things that we "dislike" and all the things that quite frankly I like to call "first world issues" are really not going to aid us in our lives now or in the future.... Sometimes I think we tend to make some of the most petty things, huge, horrible disasters waiting to happen.
Dandelions for instance.
Your house value won't change because of those flowers....your life won't be any worse, better, or indifferent because of those flowers....
In fact, if we look at those deeply rooted, yellow "weeds" in a different light for even a moment- it might just make us appreciate thing a bit more.
Tomorrow, on Mother's Day, I am going to look at those beautiful yellow flowers that my children insist on bringing me everyday and I'm going to remember a simpler time. I'm going to be reminded of my Grandma, Grace. Spending the night with her and sitting on her front porch on lazy summer days. Picking them and other amazing "flowers" and remembering her smile as she tells me how beautiful they are. All because I picked them and brought them to her....
That is worth remembering that life is too short to worry about the dandelions....
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