A field of dandelions on Ruby Hill by the South Platte River
I love fields of dandelions. Though I will get out my dandelion fork to purge one plant from our cultivated lawn, I find a symbolic kinship with this "weed" that doesn't willingly share its accidental rooting place with other plants. What is a weed anyway but a wild plant growing in a location where it's not wanted?
I was once a weed. My birth placed my roots in a West Texas location where my thoughts, opinions and questions were contrary to the existing mental climate. My family and the society tried to tame my errant beliefs to no avail. As soon as I could, I drifted with the wind and got my non-believing, liberal-thinking self out of Texas. I like parts of Texas--to visit--but I did not want to live or raise children there.
Maybe it wasn't only the "culture" of West Texas--I may have moved from wherever I was raised. My husband says that in every family there are "stayers" and "leavers." Both he and I were genetically predisposed to be leavers. I was born with a permanent case of wanderlust that wasn't well tolerated by my friends or family. Fearful of change and suspicious of differences, my family urged me to "leave well-enough alone and be satisfied with what I had."
I have a small placard that says, "I haven't been everywhere--but it's on my list!" I didn't know when I married a pilot that his occupation would eventually result in benefits of free standby travel almost anywhere we'd like to go. Nor did I know twenty years ago, when we agreed to host mid-career foreign professionals in our home for five weeks twice a year, that we'd have ready-made adopted relatives around the world who would want to share their lives, countries and culture with us. We've been fortunate to be able to visit about thirty of them--so far. We arrive in their countries with no preconceptions or expectations, only enthusiastic curiosity.
In June one of my sons will marry a woman from Brazil and in July we will travel there to meet her family and attend the Brazilian wedding reception.
Posted by: Tana | September 10, 2011 at 07:45 PM