Yonder Yellow In Pennsylvania!!

First published on May 14, 2012----this is here...because I have a long connection with these beautiful yellow flowers...and I see them everywhere I go...

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These yellow flowers reminded me of Pennsylvania when I first spotted them in Karlstad two years ago.  Although, in Karlstad they bloom for a very short time, in Pennsylvania they were one of the first flowers to bloom in spring.  And one would see a whole row or fence or lining by the street bright yellow, in early March.  I remember the shrubs that covered one side of the building next to the bus stop.  That splash of yellow always brightened me and I shared a private thought or two with these beings....I noticed the shrubs throughout winter and come spring I used to stop and pay my Obeisance by silently bowing to them.   If I were to use an Indian metaphor, then 'I was standing to get their darshan'.  Darshan, which refers to vision and seeing, is actually quite different from just seeing.  It actually means, 'to be seen'.  And we usually go for God's darshan or some holy person's darshan.  For in their presence we bathe in pure energy.  That is what I wanted from these flowers.  I would bow in reverence and hope that they saw me and colored me 'bright yellow'  I have attached a little write-up from my journal about these flowers.  I wrote that more than a decade ago, wondering where I was ever going to use it.....Thank Goodness for blogs!!

There are these yellow flowers that grow (are in bloom) all the time.  I mean they are perennial in the real sense of the word.  You can see them in the heart of winter, and at the peak of summer. They somewhat seem lost during the spring when you have flowers galore … but they are there when you really need them.  They are striking yellow, and they seem to grow off dried brown, almost dead and brittle stems.  I don’t know their name and don’t think I need to.  To me they signify life and live to their fullest.  So I call them “Gurus”.

During all my years in Pennsylvania, I have looked at them, enjoyed their beauty and tried to use them as my role model for inspiration.  Some time when I don’t want to use them for inspiration, and want to bury myself in sorrow and petty helplessness of my life, I shy away from looking at them.  And yet, it is then that they give up their bashfulness and stare me right in the face.  Almost throwing their minuteness in my face, they know that any second they can be crushed by a thoughtless child, or they could even stop breathing under a bird poop.  And yet they smile.  May be because they have accepted their mortality and minuteness.  In that lies their infinite existence.

                                                                                                    ------------------   journal, 1998