“This dandelion has long ago surrendered its golden petals, and has reached its crowning stage of dying – the delicate seed-globe must break up now – it gives and gives till it has nothing left. What a revolution would come over the world – the world of starving bodies at home – the world of starving souls abroad, if something like this were the standard of giving; if God’s people ventured on ‘making themselves poor’ as Jesus did, for the sake of the need around; if the ‘I’ – ‘me’ – ‘mine’ were practically delivered up, no longer to be recognized when they clash with those needs.”
~ Lilias Trotter (Parables of the Cross)

The final words of the film, Many Beautiful Things, come from the Parables of the Cross. Lilias refers to the seed-globe of the dandelion: “It holds itself no longer for its own keeping, only as something to be given.”  Can we say with the abandonment of the seed-globe, “I am now ready to be offered”?

For further reflection on this quote and this topic of giving – giving of ourselves to others – visit biographer Miriam Rockness’s blog post:  The Lesson of the Dandelion.