Dandelion Story

Most of the winter in Seattle is gray and wet, but occasionally the clouds disperse and the sun shines with an urgent, piercing brightness. On one of these rare, staggeringly beautiful mornings I rushed outside to take in as much vitamin-D and I could and watch my breath turn to vapor. As I walked, I passed a massive dandelion plant, larger than I could remember ever seeing, hemming in the lawn of an abandoned house. Unlike the rather flimsy dandelions that dot the grass of Seattle lawns, tormenting homeowners, this dandelion was nearly the size of a rose bush, with thick stalks and menacing leaves.

I remembered snapping the heads off little dandelions in a neighbor's yard for ten cents a flower because, he said, the roots were too much to deal with and the green of the plant blends into the grass. This was reason enough for me as a seven-year-old, but many years later, in the midst of my own therapy I likened the process of growth to uprooting a dandelion plant. Issues or struggles in a person's life have many manifestations of varying severity, but often the manifestation is simply that, the indication of something deeper. Therapy is the beginning of a pathway to health and well-being through this process of exploration, self-reflection and uprooting; moving into a greater sense of integration, love, and acceptance for yourself.

"The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands, and then work out from there."
- Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance