A story of a Dandelion- seemingly ordinary, yet revealing its quiet magnificence.
Let’s have a look at the plant world to help us understand the nature of menopause.
And why do I look at nature? First, human beings are part of nature. Just open your eyes. But if you still can’t see it, read the first page of the Old Testament (not the second verse, because there is a different description that places men above nature). Or read Lao Tzu, who wrote in the Tao Te Ching, verse 25: “Humanity follows the earth. The earth follows heaven. Heaven follows the Tao.”
I will look at 2 plants that I used to see as ordinary. The first in today’s post is the Dandelion, freely translated from Hebrew as “the tooth of a lion”; botanical name: Taraxacum officinale.
While it is a magnificent herb, we see it as an unwanted weed. In Dutch, unwanted weeds are literally called “on-kruid”, meaning “non-herb”, as if stripped of their value by name alone. And as we know, a name usually tells a deeper story, downgrading its value in this case. What we call an unwanted weed in Hebrew translates freely as “the foolish weed.” The foolish weed. But wait, what does foolish really mean? This word took me back to a memory.
Photo: Julie Harvey Barrow in Furness, United Kingdom
I was 23 when my sister, just back from traveling in India, offered to read cards for me. We were staying in our grandmother’s guest room, in our childhood beds. I had never had a reading before, but I was open to it. The card I pulled from her Osho deck was the Fool. I was upset, insulted, and even enraged. Me, foolish? But my sister continued and explained. The Fool is one of the stronger cards. The beginner’s mind. The fresh mind. In Hebrew, Tam, from which the word “tmimut”, innocence, comes. Open. Ready to receive.
And this is exactly what happened to me with the dandelion. I only recently discovered what it truly has to offer. Even my Turkish neighbor told me, out of nowhere, “Just pluck it, it is good for the urinary tract. So much growing at our feet that we never noticed.” When we come with an innocent mind, we receive. And after “digesting” it a little, I share it with others. Like I do now.
With that innocent eye, let us look at it again.
It is yellow. Not the kind of flower that takes your breath away. But if you look closely, it is quite beautiful. It grows in fields, in gardens, in lawns, uninvited, not specially planted, just there. Common. Familiar. Easy to overlook.
What if we look at it differently? Through an archetypal lens?
If we look at this plant as She, what do we see? Is she an ordinary woman? Or maybe more specifically, a representation of a midlife woman? Maybe she is the colleague at your office whose role her bosses are starting to doubt. Her position is unstable. They might keep her or let her go. And your feelings towards her can be ambivalent.
So she stays. Until they come up with new plan(t)s.
Maybe in the meantime, we can learn what she has to offer?
Because if we change the way we look at her, we see she is deeply medicinal. Her roots are a liver tonic that stimulates bile production and flow, supports digestion, and helps the body process the hormonal shifts of menopause. Her leaves act as a natural diuretic, supporting the kidneys and urinary system, an area many women struggle with during menopause as estrogen levels decline. She is rich in iron, calcium, and vitamins, nourishing the blood and bones at exactly the time a woman’s body needs it most. The very plant we dismiss, growing uninvited at our feet, is a quiet pharmacy.
And when we learn more about this flower, understanding her as the nourishing herb she truly is, we can pay attention to our own way of thinking, to judging too fast, to prejudice.
Even in her last phase, after the flourishing yellow is gone and she looks truly worn out, you can blow her white crown of hair and let it spread in the wind. The hidden seeds in her white hair will eventually land on the earth, taking root and creating a new generation of potential. To be thrown away, used as a medicinal herb, or just to grow and be itself.
A dandelion.
In my next post, I will look at another plant we think we know. The rose. Stay tuned.