Karla’s Korner: Weeds and Wishes

Weeds and Wishes….Seeing Beyond the Obvious….

Fall is nearly over, the leaves are gone from the trees and the remaining sprigs of once beautiful flowers have turned brown losing their luster leaving behind memories of summer. Standing in the middle of the yard is a lone dandelion stem. The white fuzzy seeds have been scattered in the wind leaving behind an empty stem battered by the weather of the week. As a small child I remember my grandfather carefully plucking the white fluffy ball from the ground and telling me to “make a wish”. Blowing as hard as I could I wished for silly things like ice cream, bubble gum and grandma’s homemade candy. When I became a momma I shared the same tradition with my children soaking up their little kid giggles like a glass of sweet tea on a hot summer day. Knowing full well that those white fluffy wishing seeds would land somewhere in our yard and sprout another dandelion flower that would turn into another wishing ball. My husband had a different view; it was a weed. Armed with the garden sprayer full of weed killer he would spend his afternoons weeding and manicuring the yard; weeds were not allowed. Once in a while a wishing ball would survive the attack and my children would giggle as they blew the tiny fluffy seeds into the wind. They saw the opportunity to make a wish; their dad saw it as a weed that needed to be plucked from the yard before it had time to multiply.

Finding ourselves consumed by busy lifestyles that pull us in many different directions we tend to overlook the beauty in each day. Busy parents work to fill each moment of time with activities that they forget to embrace the beauty of a spaghetti covered face, a milk mustache or the bubble bearded boy in the bath tub. We neglect to “stop to smell the roses”. We forget to enjoy the beauty of the roses of because we can only see the thorns. The rose will bloom for just a few short days but the stem and thorns lasts longer causing us to focus on the bare stem with all of its flaws instead of the beauty that once resided on the end of the stem; the rose.

In April 2011 a woman stopped along the median on a busy Brazilian street. Raimundo Arruda Sobrinho was homeless, dirty and poor. Thousands of people passed him every day paying no attention to him or what it was he was doing there; he lived there for nearly 35 years. Sobrinho, a poet, never let his circumstances affect the beauty of his writing. Settled in the corners of his mind Raimundo had hopes of writing a book. And while it seemed nearly impossible, Raimundo continued to write. Shalla Monteiro made the decision to stop and speak to him one sunny afternoon and what she discovered was a beautiful soul stuck inside a dirty, homeless, poor man who had no means of achieving his goal alone. Monteiro saw through the physical characteristics and decided to create a Facebook page to introduce the world to Raimundo. As a result of the social media posts Monteiro was contacted by Raimundo’s estranged brother. The two met and the brother offered Raimundo a place to live; he wanted his brother back in his life. He could have chosen to stay away, after all they had not seen one another in 35 years but the eyes of his heart allowed him to see past the dirt, grime, matted hair, leathered skin and lost years and see a human being who is not only his brother but a man with a soul filled with beauty; he was no longer a weed but a wish waiting to be whispered.

The ability to see life in a different light is not an easy task. From the time we are born we learn behaviors, mannerisms, social and economic ideas and what others want us to believe to be right or wrong. As we mature it doesn’t always occur to us to consider that what we’ve been taught may not be what we really believe or how we view the world around us. It is necessary I think to learn to re-focus the eyes of our heart and see beyond the evident. Much like Shalla Monteiro saw through Raimundo’s outward appearance into the beauty of his heart and mind giving the world the gift of his poetry. It would have been easier to ignore the pauper on the street and had she done that the world would have missed out on the gift of him.

I encourage you to take time out this week to be still, look at the world around you and somehow make a difference in the life of someone,. My daughter interacts with a homeless man on the corner near her university. While hundreds walk past him on a daily basis she finds a moment here and there to drop off a donut, cup of coffee or a smile and a handshake. To some he is not worth it but to her he matters and she wants him to know that. To some he is the lone dandelion standing in a field of what life would consider beautiful flowers unworthy of attention but to her he is relevant and in his own unique way blesses her with his presence. And just like the countless dandelions my young children gleefully gave me insisting that I put them in a vase I realized that the beauty didn’t always lay in the flower of the weed but in the heart of the child who plucked it from the earth with joy in their eyes and love in their hearts. To some a dandelion is a weed to others it is a wish….what do you see?

Peace,
Karla

 

I think we all need a touch point a place we can go to be inspired. Karla is my children’s teacher, a good friend, and a person with a heart of gold. I hope that her words will inspire you to do more. We are only as good as the people we surround ourselves with. It is important to listen with your heart and proceed with your eyes open. Enjoy!

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