May 13, 2020
Weeds growing alongside our driveway... or, dare I call them wildflowers? Bless the neighbors.
Outside our house there are many weeds to pull and always more with new day. This weed in vase bleeds bright orange sap when ripped from the ground, dramatic some might say. The outpouring has its uses- is medicinal, will leave a mark, make a stain, and can be used as a dye to create a change. Nature always seems to unapologetically present itself and have it’s say.
The Quiet botanist challenged a foraged bouquet or arrangement. The lilacs now blooming in the backyard might have been a more obvious choice, but these wild things growing beside the driveway have been calling my eye. This is likely since they are overgrown and terribly in need of our hands.
I was given a book titled Native Plants of the Northeast... thumbed through the chapter titled Wildflowers- curious to look up this pretty, unwanted thing. Lo, the Celandine Poppy (Stylophorum Diphyllum)- a weed of a wildflower. Know by name, changed.
Make a stain with yellow dye of this lesson on the shelf. Look closer at every nuisance. Life’s weeds, with tighter scope of eye, perhaps just wild wild flowers.
Maybe still some stains are in need of pulling or fading. Maybe some flowers are better off in the vase. But a life lived through the weeds of an unkept yard is so different than a walk with the meadow, dotted bright with yellow mystery, ready to stain your palms.