What Does Pentecost Have to Do With Dandelions?
As I was taking my usual walk to St. Joseph’s Lake one day, I paid more attention than usual to the dandelions. Of course, the yellow flowers most call weeds were in lavish abundance!
Then my attention drifted to the puff balls that dandelions become. I was taken by such an amazing transformation. How does that yellow flower become that perfect geometric ball of fluff? They look nothing alike! How does that happen? It filled me with wonder.
These days I hunt for those dandelion fluff balls the way mushroom enthusiasts hunt for Morels. Paired with the yellow flowers, I use them as a prayer symbol. What a great symbol for Easter and Resurrection when Jesus is transformed into a new being even as we can be transformed both in this life and at our death.
Fluff Balls
Another day I noticed that the yellow flower is rooted in place. But the puff ball is no longer limited to one location. Is that like Pentecost when the Apostles received the Holy Spirit and were commissioned to spread the Good News to the ends of the Earth?
In the Hebrew Testament we read how God’s saving power was extended to Israel to free them from oppression. They saw themselves as God’s chosen people. The Pentecost event confirmed that all are God’s chosen people; all hear the Good news of God’s saving power in their own language.
Breathe On Us
What does this have to do with the dandelion? The ball of fluff is filled with seeds. When the wind blows, they are dispersed without being bound by any borders. We know they land in unwelcome places. At a time when inclusive love and justice is forbidden and punished, will I, will we allow ourselves to be transformed like that yellow dandelion? Will we allow the Spirit of God to breathe on us to disperse the seeds of God’s unconditional, inclusive love even in unwelcome places?
In his book, Seventy Sonnets of the Christian Seasons, Malcolm Guite has a wonderful poem about Pentecost. The following is being used with permission:
Our Mother-tongue is Love
Today we feel the wind beneath our wings
Today the hidden fountain flows and plays
Today the church draws breath at last and sings
As every flame becomes a Tongue of praise,
This is the feast of fire, air and water
Poured out and breathed and kindled into earth
The earth itself awakens to her maker
And is translated out of death to birth.
The right words come today in the right order
And every word spells freedom and release
Today the gospel crosses every border
All tongues are loosened by the Prince of Peace
Today the lost are found in His translation
Whose mother-tongue is Love, in every nation.
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I am disappointed with the photos that do not show the transmission.
Ii am disappointed that the photos do not show the transformation..
This is a powerful metaphor for Pentecost, Donna. Transformation AND sending forth. Thank you!
What a great analogy, Donna! We can picture those dandelions transforming into puffballs and spreading, just as we ourselves are able. Thank you!
Truly enjoyed your explanation of the dandy-lion. Lovely.
Thanks, Debbie! Just as we need imagination to see the pictures of the fluff balls, we need to imagine a world of inclusion.
Beautiful, Donna! I love your beautiful meditation on a lovely flower. I’ll never look at dandelions the same way. Out here in California, they are not as numerous, and a bit different looking than the familiar ones you pictured. Another thing we might add to your meditation is that dandelion greens are nutritious and can feed us!
Thank you, Donna. a fine analogy and the poem is beautiful.
I enjoyed your thoughts regarding the Holy Spirit’s calling to inclusion, unconditional love. You prompt me to share this quote regarding Pride month
“This Pride month, I hope that you find a way to celebrate that is uniquely your own, and that you feel the Spirit moving within you. Perhaps that will be among strangers, or in the comfort of a close group of friends. Maybe Pride feels joyful and exhilarating. Maybe it feels peaceful, a prayer of gratitude for being created as you are.”
New Ways Ministry, June 8.
Happy Pentecost season to all!
Thank you, Steve. May it be so,
When I was a kid my beautiful mother Mary Jane would pick them and hand one to me and say make a wish and I always wished for a new bike . Today I would wish for world peace and a new pony !
Thankyou , sr. Donna and spreading the good news of Pentecost to spread the Gospel .
peace out !