Thursday, September 23, 2010

Life is like a lawn full of dandelions...

Have you ever seen a child pick up a dandelion and blow all the seeds into oblivion?  And as those seeds scatter all over your perfectly manicured front lawn, you get that sinking feeling that a trail of new weeds will be left in their wake dotting the perfect expanse of green that you just spent all morning weeding, fertilizing, and mowing? 
Then, right as you are about to launch into your lecture about the perils of weeds, you look down and see the smile on your kid’s face with eyes scrunched up and lips fervently moving in an indecipherable wish.  And, suddenly, you realize that a few dandelion weeds here and there are totally worth the lit-up eyes, the sense of wonderment, and the spreading wisdom that a few drifting seeds can grow.
Now, picture life like that green lawn and the dotted dandelions like the people we meet that break up the infinite green.  When I first met Suzi, I knew that this was a weed worth hanging onto.  Open, honest, well-caffeinated and a writer to boot… how could I go wrong getting to know this fascinatingly perky person? 
Many millions of email exchanges later, we both realized that our similarities far outweigh our differences and Muslim or Christian, we both still love our coffee, our families, our spirituality, and our writing—not necessarily in that particular order.  With all the controversy swirling around at a time when differences seem to be consistently highlighted, we figured it was high time to spread those dandelion seeds far and wide and show that finding similarities is way more fun than focusing on the differences. 
Between teaching at the university, taking care of my family, promoting my latest book and working on the next, I wasn’t sure if I was ready to dive into the world of blogging.  But, spreading perspective and maybe just a tiny bit of sense both seem like a worthy cause.   Feel free to take a cue from my three kids and snatch a dandelion, close your eyes, make a wish and blow the little white puffs as hard as you can.  You just might be surprised when the seeds grow into something way more beautiful than just another ordinary weed. J   

--Suzy Ismail     

2 comments:

  1. Welcome to the world of blogging Suzy. In a world awash with so much negativity, hopefully this oasis of positivity you two are creating will grow into something that inspires a great many people. I see you just took the first step. You two are an inspiration.

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  2. Thanks for the welcome and the words of encouragement! :-) Even though my response was a bit delayed... I think I'm still trying to get the hang of keeping up with the posts and the comments. Better late than never, I s'pose.

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