The dandelions are back here in the fields around my home. My favourite flowers are always among the first to show up in Spring and among the last to leave in Fall. Their sweet, gentle beauty always warms my heart, delights my eye, and brings joy to my soul. They literally fill the lawns and meadows at this time of the year and continue on throughout the summer in spite of the countless attacks from lawn mowers and weed killers that they must endure.

I have loved dandelions ever since I was a little boy. I can remember picking handfuls of them to give to my Mom and seeing her beautiful smile when she smelled their sweet fragrance. I can remember too gathering hundreds of their blossoms so that my Grandma could make her famous dandelion wine. I can also remember using all the air in my lungs to help flower after flower scatter its seeds to the winds. I can remember most of all, however, just lying in the grass surrounded by these tiny, golden suns and wishing that summer would never end.