Battling Dandelions

The damn dandelions are back, multiplying en masse across the entire yard, hiding from the lawn mower, pulled out only to return fivefold the next week.

At a sweat lodge ceremony a few years ago, I was given a ritual to conduct on my property and told, “The land will start speaking to you. Just watch.” And it truly did.

I was really into reading about plant consciousness at the time and would look up the spiritual symbolism and medicinal properties of every plant that popped up. It’s been said that nature provides the remedy.

(Apparently, if you suck on a plant’s seeds before planting, the plant will begin producing specific remedies tailored to your needs—just like a mother’s breast milk adapts to her baby. So fascinating.)

At the time, I was grieving family losses, and forget-me-nots started appearing out of nowhere. When I looked up the flower essence, I found they uplift the soul and help elevate spiritual perspective during times of loss. So I gathered their petals and made the medicine. This happened again and again, for different needs.

The land was talking to me. And I wasn’t high… usually ;)

Our conversations deepened. I started seeing metaphors in the work I was doing outside. I needed to unburden a garden bed of weeds while I needed my own unburdening. I’d find baby blooms hidden beneath the overgrowth, just as fresh insight would emerge in my life. I'd need to tend and renew the soil just as my own inner foundations required care before a period of growth.

When I’m paying attention, I get so many answers from the land.

I don’t think that’s abnormal. Gardening is a beloved hobby for a reason, whether people are aware of this ongoing conversation or not.

But these damn dandelions.

I posted a video yesterday of my growing crop with the caption: weeds or wishes?

Our front yard has become almost entirely dandelion roots. My husband has been out there trying to win the battle. My bonus dad’s lawn rivals the local golf greens, so we do try. But the backyard is big, and we’ve never managed to keep up with the weeds and wildflowers.

Walking up the yard after a morning sit in the garden, I noticed how beautiful the light was shining through their globes. I had a choice: I could see them as a never-ending problem, another thing to fix, or I could see the magic of thousands of tiny wishes.

There’s no stopping the dandelions.

You can choose to see them as weeds and a nuisance—or you can relax and see the magic. Let nature do its thing. Stop resisting and fighting the flow.

Dandelion essence carries powerful medicinal properties, both for the physical and subtle bodies. A few keywords I pulled: attuning to the essence of the sun, supporting action when you struggle to bring plans into form. (More on that later.)

But the bigger conversation I’m having is this:

Where am I resisting what wants to come into my life?
Where am I trying to control instead of trust?
Where am I killing my own wishes and dreams?

🖤t