my neighbor was outside today in denim overalls and a sunhat digging in the
dirt to plant tulips since it's spring and the weather is nice which is a normal
enough scene for a kind old lady to be in except I was watching her and I thought
wow those seeds must be expensive and doesn't anyone ever stop. stop and remember
when they were four years old and their mama took them to the park on a warm
april day and stayed there until the sun went down laughing and rolling in the
fields together. that april day when they picked a bouquet of dandelions weeds
to most adults nowadays but don't they stop and remember how big their mama
smiled as she took them in her arms and whispered softly I love you? don't they
stop and remember how she took off the huge twenty dollar centerpiece on the
table with petunias and daisies and the whole shebang her mother-in-law gave
her and instead put every single one of the dandelions you picked there in its
place until they wilted? doesn't anyone when they're planting tulips stop and
remember that day and the dandelions?