One of the things Thich Nhat Hanh said about the mindful consideration of flowers sticks with me: there’s no separate thing such as a flower. Flowers are empty of “flower stuff;” pull a flower apart and you’ll never find a single thing within it that is called a flower. Instead, the flower in my yard is a result; a beautiful, glorious thing made up of sunshine, rain, nitrogen, soil, and so on.

 

By David Jones

I love seeing colorful wildflowers in our yard; the bold yellows of the dandelions and the deep purples of the wild violets.

I’ve been told that I shouldn’t let them grow in my lawn because they’re just weeds. But since I’m not a 1950s dad I confused these awful weeds with things of beauty. My mistake.

It’s kind of crazy to me how we readily dismiss things that can bring beauty and meaning to our lives simply because we’ve been taught they’re undesirable or unimportant. Other beautiful things get barely a cursory glance from us as we hurry by. Mindfulness is a good solution for this mindless way of thinking, because it asks us to slow down and pause, to carefully and intentionally consider the things we encounter in life rather than just sticking them in brain categories and moving on.

I mention 1950s dads because I think they decided all our lawns needed to be weed-free, cut to a certain height and watered every day.

But their goal seemed to be conformity, not beauty. It’s the concept behind every Homeowners Association that demands your roof be exactly this type and color of shingle and that your mailbox match the others on your block. Standing out was seen as bad.

One of the things Thich Nhat Hanh said about the mindful consideration of flowers sticks with me: there’s no separate thing such as a flower. Flowers are empty of “flower stuff;” pull a flower apart and you’ll never find a single thing within it that is called a flower. Instead, the flower in my yard is a result; a beautiful, glorious thing made up of sunshine, rain, nitrogen, soil, and so on.

Interestingly, those are the same ingredients in my grass and all the weeds that grow with it.

I’m not saying I can’t appreciate a well-manicured lawn. It looks great when someone with a huge yard mows it in patterns, and thick green grass looks beautiful. Some folks don’t want weeds because that’d mess up the symmetry and uniformity they’re wanting. I’m not saying their way is wrong, I’m just saying that my way isn’t wrong either.

I’d love to have a few flower beds around the house.

I’m distressingly fond of iris in all their rich and bold and sometimes funky colors, which we had on our farm in rural Missouri. I used to have a massive, wonderful rose bush at my old house in Independence that was much taller than my carport.

Maybe one day we’ll tear out the shrubs in front of our current house and plant beautiful flowers. I’m not saying the shrubs aren’t good things—properly maintained they can look fabulous, especially topiary. But I don’t really want the shrubs—I’d rather have colorful flowers. We only have shrubs because every house in the neighborhood seems to have them, which was probably part of that desire for uniformity.

But you know, if we planted flowers then we’d have to constantly be out there pulling weeds. The dandelions and violets and wild clover would all have to go so they didn’t choke out my iris. Crazy how the weeds never seem to choke each other out, they all just seem content to grow where they will and let the others do the same. And the bees don’t seem to mind if they get their pollen from dandelions or crysyn… crystanth… crisanth… roses.

Of course, the bees aren’t even paying to collect pollen on my property. I probably ought to call my local assessor’s office about that.

Beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder, but as the wise teacher Thich Nhat Hanh made clear, we can choose to have much more appreciative eyes.

We can see beauty in nature, in architecture, in kids playing in the spray of a fire hydrant on a hot city street, in people, and in art. Perhaps the world doesn’t necessarily need more beauty. Maybe we just need to open our eyes a little wider to take in all the beauty that’s already all around us everyday.

That said, we need to buy some iris and get a lilac bush for the backyard. Who knows, maybe everyone else will try to keep up with the Joneses and get some too. That’d be beautiful.

 

Photo: Pixabay

 

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