Out of Darkness, Part II

As promised the blackness has faded and the Folklore Village prairie has sprouted lovely green shoots over the rolling hills. I look out over the 40 acres and see nothing but green. Just green. Now I’m not complaining. Not one bit. I like green. But I know that in the depths of that green other colors are striving to grow and are begging to shine and be seen. How can I be so sure? Because I’ve walked through prairies before. Because people tell me that after a burn things grow like crazy. Because I know that there is a lot of hope in the fields…but my mind sometimes doesn’t quite want to believe. Maybe nothing is growing this year. Maybe it is just green grass. I can’t stand not knowing anymore – it’s time for a prairie walk. (Yes, I’m going. Right now…)

 Ahhh – there. Look close. See it? Get down on your knee. Yep, there are the petals of a flower. Ooh – and over there – see that tuft of yellow bending in the breeze? Ooooh! And what’s up there?! I have to get closer. It’s stunning! Hooray! I’ve been hoping to see that! What is this? I can’t tell, but it looks amazing. I’ll have to come back soon and see what it turns into….

 People are a lot like prairies. So often we look at people and only see the green.  (And sometimes we don't even see that.) We do this for a lot of reasons – we are too busy, the person was not kind to us, they might look too different, might act too different…the list goes on and on. However, without taking a moment to wonder what MIGHT be there, we cannot discover what IS there. We cannot see the small red leaf of knowledge hidden in the shy smile, or the bright bloom of kindness that is shadowed by a cloudy day or the soft petal of silliness that is hidden beneath the leaves of discouragement.

 Last year I walked out into our Tall Grass prairie expecting to see grass. I was absolutely astounded when someone started pointing out a flower here, a plant there. I had no idea the beauty that I was overlooking everyday. I immediately started wandering the hills with my eyes on the ground. I saw so many stunning flowers, tiny plants, giant stalks and everything in between. This discovery led me back this year – expecting to see some flowers amid all that flowing grass. It was a nice expectation to have and it led me to see different flowers today. Ones that either weren’t there last year or ones I hadn’t had my eyes open enough to see last year.

 I can only hope that I remember this when looking at people. I don’t want to see only green. I want to bend down close, listen to the whisper of the flowers calling and shine a light on the petals that I know are there. And I want to have the patience to see what some of the budding qualities turn into. I can only hope that upon this closer look I will enjoy what I see as much as the stunning cream wild indigo I was finally blessed to see today.

Melissa