I collect dandelion leaves to feed our children’s bunnies on my walks. The leaves I find along the buzzing roadside are tougher-leaved and pocked by sharp roadside pebbles. I look for the ones tucked just under the tree-line’s shade. As I pick I take notice these are softer in my hand, a lighter shade of green, and not a pockmarked in any way. I search these out, imagining our bunnies liking these tender plants much more.

I wonder:

What have I let become hardened that was always meant to stay tender under God’s care?

The dandelion remains the same basic composition – a dandelion plant – no matter where it’s planted. We remain human under all our circumstances. Some experiences we can’t avoid; the question is how will we face them? My hope is: mindfully, prayerfully, and protected under God’s guidance.

The tender plants are not removed completely from the circumstances of the road, but are set back a mere twelve feet or so. They can still see the middle fingers and hear the rude hollers of potential passersby. But they experience this from a different standpoint. Roadside pebbles are still kicked up and dropped like tearing rain, but they have the advantage of the covering provided by the overarching branches of the trees above them. They live the same circumstances of the harder plant by the road, but they live through them differently.