I was riding in the backseat as we sped down the highway last week on our way to Oriental, NC for some rest and relaxation. I like traveling in the backseat. I was already relaxing, not having to drive or navigate. Nice!  This thought popped into my mind as I noticed a blur of colors in the median.

Wild flowers in the median don’t know we call them weeds.

Weeds….valueless plants growing wild. Really? Weeds? I don’t think so. I decided, right then and there, that no flower could be called a weed. Not the yellow dandelion, the wild purple violet, the field pansy, the common vetch or the carolina geranium. We call them weeds because they grow profusely where we don’t want them to grow. That’s on us. It’s not their fault.

This might be a good lesson for how we have a tendency to judge other people. We look at them and determine, through our own lens, they don’t have much value. Maybe it’s the person begging for money at the intersection, the man who smells like he hasn’t bathed in forever, the young girl with rotted teeth. Or it could be the person with whom we disagree or the one who doesn’t seem to care. We may not call them weeds, but maybe we don’t want them around either. Not really interested in their particular bloom. That’s on us. It’s not their fault.

I guess the bottom line here is: Don’t judge it, just let it bloom. We don’t have to fall in love with every flower or every person. But we don’t have to judge them either.

Thank you, wild flowers in the median.
Paula