“Dandelions are just friendly little weeds who only want to be loved like flowers.”
― Heather Babcock
I like dandelions. I know that’s not the popular stance with people warring to get rid of dandelions in their yards. Good thing I don’t have any neighboring yards because I let dandelions grow where they wish. In the spring they are sunspots in the new green grass. I even wrote a devotional about dandelions you can find here on my website.
And I let Lacey, my character in The Blessed do a dandelion dance to welcome spring. It was something her mother taught her and that she carried on even during those springs when she had a hard time grabbing hold of any joy. Since The Blessed is on special e-book sale right now for a limited time, I decided to share a scene from the book about one of Lacey’s spring dances. We’ll have to wait awhile for spring around here, but dandelions are tough little flowers that will send us some cheer as soon as the weather warms. Sometimes that’s right in the midst of winter.
So here’s Lacey’s spring dance scene with the little girl she loves.
That afternoon after Preacher Palmer went out with Deacon Crutcher to visit the sick, Lacey told Rachel to go looking for a dandelion in the backyard. A smile was spread all the way across the little girl’s face when a few minutes later she came running back to the porch with a round yellow dandelion bloom clutched in her hand.
“Do we get to do the dance?” Rachel asked her.
Lacey’s heart hurt as she stared down at the child’s hopeful face and thought about how rare Rachel’s smiles had been in the last few weeks. As rare as her own. She’d agreed to wed the preacher to keep mothering Rachel and now here she was shirking her duty, pulling sadness over on her when there wasn’t a bit of need in that. Even if with the summer she’d have to attend to the preacher’s demands. Married women did as much everywhere. Cleaved to their husbands.
Lacey grinned at Rachel and sat down on the porch steps to start unlacing her shoes. Rachel giggled and kicked off hers too. They danced all across the backyard right out into the edge of the woods to a little wet weather spring the rain had made. The water was cold, just the way it was supposed to be as they stomped and laughed. Lacey didn’t even look over her shoulder to be sure no church people had come to the preacher’s house to check that his wife was attending to her proper place.
With their skirt tails soaked and mud between their toes they went back out of the woods but instead of going straight back to the house, Lacey led Rachel over to the church house and into the graveyard. They hadn’t been to visit Miss Mona’s grave since they’d buried her. It had been too hard to think about her in that cold winter ground. Too hard to think about Miss Mona being gone forever.
They both got quiet as they solemnly walked toward the new grave. Lacey’s heart started pounding almost as hard as it had the night the preacher had climbed up to the attic room. Maybe they shouldn’t have done the spring dance with Miss Mona so newly gone. The gloom was coming back to sit heavy on her shoulders when all of the sudden, Rachel jerked on Lacey’s hand and started jumping up and down.
“Look, Lacey. Look. Mama’s doing the spring dance with us.”
Lacey could scarcely believe her eyes. Bright yellow dandelions were blooming all across Miss Mona’s grave like as how somebody had planted them there. A blanket of yellow spring.
It was a sign. Miss Mona was telling her or maybe it was the good Lord who was telling her that spring comes. Even when a person tries to close it out. It comes.
Lacey has many more lessons to learn in the story before she can find her happy beginning at the end.
The Blessed is available in e-book for 99 cents or less right now. A great time to grab the story if you have an e-reader.
Book Giveaway Time
But I know some of you don’t have e-readers or prefer having a book in hand. There’s just something about 
actually turning pages instead of swiping them. So for you or for all of you whether you like to e-read or not, I’m going to give away a few books. If you’d like to enter a drawing to win one of my Shaker books, just leave a comment here on my post. I’ll keep the contest going until October 27, 2018. That means I’ll have two more posts before I pick three winner. (You have to be at least 18 years old to enter.) If you leave a comment on all three posts, then you’ll have three entries to up your chances of winning a book. Deadline for entries is midnight EST October 27, 2018.
For fun, tell me something you know about the Shakers or why you think you would or wouldn’t be a Shaker. If you don’t know, then you can enter by just saying you don’t know and want to enter the drawing.
As always, thanks for reading.
Comments 36
I don’t know very much about the Shaker way of life…but I love learning new things and making new friends through the books I read…I would love to read this story!
I enjoy your Shaker books but would not want to be one……I love my family and freedom too much ! Thanks for another give -away ! Possibility of a few snowflakes tonight here in Dayton, OHIO…..way too early for winter weather……
Author
Brr on that snow, Nancy. Actually it started out not so bad here and then got very windy and cool. My grandsons are here and they were about to think our house was going to blow away. But it’s calmer now.
I’m glad you’ve enjoyed the Shaker stories, but I think most of us are in agreement that we would rather read about them than be them!!
I find reading about the Shakers fascinating but I wouldn’t want to live without my family and by all the rules.
Author
Times were different when the Shakers were in their heyday or best time, Lucy. Not as many opportunities for people then or safety nets if they fell on hard times. The Shakers could be those safety nets, but you’re right. They did have to abide by the rules.
I don’t know much about the Shakers except what I’ve read from your postings. They seemed to be a very well organized group that could get a lot of work done and also were very kind and giving to strangers. I would not want to be one myself, I like having my family and being sociable. I hope you will enter me into your drawing, I would love to win one of your books, thanks!
Author
Got you entered, Connie. You’ve figured out several things from my Shaker Wednesday postings. The Shakers were excellent workers and were able to get much done in their villages. I think most in this day and time would agree that they would rather not give up their families. But there could have been some who had no loving family and came to the Shakers to find that family of brothers and sisters.
I would not want to be a Shaker. I value my family too much. My husband, children, parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins have all played important roles in my life and I couldn’t give them up.
Author
I’m with you, April. I wouldn’t want to be a Shaker either. My characters generally agree with that too and have just ended up in the Shaker village due to some life circumstance. But there were many devout Shakers who did believe in following the Shaker way.
I remember watching a program about the Shakers quite a few years ago. I saw it about three times and enjoyed it. There was a part where they were in front of a class in school talking to the kids about their faith. It wasn’t the first time because the woman commented how well the children had remembered what they told them previously. I also remember that the men and women had to come in through separate doors. They talked about Mother Ann Lee. I wouldn’t mind watching it again.
Author
I had a Ken Burns video about the Shakers. Maybe that’s the one you saw, Laura. But it might have been something different since I don’t remember anybody talking to kids about the Shaker faith. Whatever, it seems you enjoyed it. The men and women did use separate doors and Ann Lee was the Shaker founder and was called Mother Ann by her followers.
They are not allowed to marry. When entering the dining hall make and female go through separate doors. Seems like I remember a celebration dance of some kind in one of your books and they get up very early and all have assigned duties. That’s a little bit of what I remember from reading your books. Now I’m going to add The Blessed to my E Reader before I retire for the night. Thank you for sharing and good luck to all in your drawing, including me! 😊
Author
You remember several things, Karen. They did get up early and work each day except Sunday. Then only essential chores. After you read The Blessed, you’ll remember more. 🙂 Thank you for reading my books. I so appreciate that.
I’m guessing someone had to work on Sunday. Three meals to eat plus clean up. Even if the food was prepared the day before. ???
Many years ago, in a public elementary school in Indiana, I recall separate playgrounds for boys and girls. For recess, we exited the building before recess and reentered afterward using separate doors, the girls door on the north side of the building and the boys on the south side. We have more recently required children to eat and refrain from talking during lunch at some schools. I have experienced family (not mine) dinners where the rule was to eat and not talk, leaving me in an uncomfortable situation. While the rigidity of some of the Shaker rules, regulations, and judgmental ways are not ones I would choose to follow, I do admire their focus on a job well done in order to honor God; I admire their faith, and their allegiance to their religion. And, Ann, I treasure your Shaker stories!
Author
Thank you, Becky, for reading my Shaker stories. Interesting about the rules you remember for that elementary school. The no talking rule is probably one that lunchroom workers like, but gee, you got to talk sometimes. I would have been like you at those dinners where no one talked. Food and fellowship seem to go together. You picked out some good attributes of the Shakers to admire and some reasons to hesitate to step onto the Shaker way. Their rigidity and rules did relax as the years went by. Of course some of the older Shakers claimed that was why the Shaker villages began dying out.
I submitted a comment,but it didn’t seem to go, so I hope it doesn’t show up later.
I am reading The Blessed now and am enjoying it, but I wouldn’t want to be a Shaker. Too many rules and not enough loving and caring feelings. The only thing I ever associated with the Shakers was their furniture.
Author
They did have many rules, Darlene. But I do believe there was much caring between the women as sisters and the men as brothers. The Shaker history in The Blessed is a bit different since it’s set during their Era of Manifestations when some odd things were happening. They were actually a generous and peaceful people but the rules were hard for many to follow. The main characters in my books are generally resistant to the Shaker way, perhaps because I think I would be resistant to the Shaker life.
I would not want to be a Shaker, because, I definitely believe in having a family. I have read The Blessed and throughly enjoyed it.
My husband’s aunt often told of picking dandelions as a child in southwest Virginia, for so many a penny to make dandelion wine.
Author
Thank you for reading The Blessed, Shirley. I’m glad you liked the story. I am with you in believing in having families. The Shakers had a different view of families, but one I wouldn’t have wanted to try unless I had no choice. But at times, I think perhaps those who went to the Shakers did go because they needed a place to live and food to eat. No government assistance back in those days and little way for a woman to make it on her own if something happened to her husband.
Thanks for telling me about your husband’s aunt picking dandelion to sell for dandelion wine. That would make a great tidbit in a story. I did know a friend who said his mother made dandelion wine.
What a strong visual image your words create woven with the emotions your storytelling evokes. Thank you, Ann.
I found this website a few months back, http://mydandelionisaflower.org/did-you-know/. (It might have been when I read The Blessed.)
Author
That’s neat that you found that website, Becky. Loved all the dandelion facts – especially that one about people pulling up grass in their yards to make more room for dandelions. It is a very useful little plant. And cheerful and fun on top of that.
I agree, Ann. I really liked the visual of the dandelion representing the sun, the moon, and the stars. I had friends in a town in Indiana that gathered the dandelions in their yard and those yards nearby. They made dandelion wine and labeled it Fleur Jaune (yellow flower in French).
I have enjoyed your Shaker stories so much. While the sternness they displayed did not endear some of them to me, others were kind and compassionate. The Shakers seemed to hold tightly to a deep and abiding faith, and, as you said, worshipped through their hard work. We who love their wares are the beneficiaries. And, they did help many who needed a home or needed to escape a dangerous situation. Your ability to put your reader in the story only makes me want to read more.
I’ve said over and over, dear sister, you should have been a writer! ❤️
Loved every one of your Shaker books and look forward to another. Would be hard to live by their rules – especially no talking during meals and having to report every sin they think you’ve committed, even if you have to make one up or is only in your mind. Thanks for all the great reading, Ann.
Fun to hear from Jocie the other day – would love another book in that series.
Author
Glad you enjoyed Jocie’s post on her Heart of Hollyhill blog, Doris. I like slipping back into Jocie mode now and again. Maybe someday I’ll get to go back to Hollyhill for another story.
I’m glad you’ve enjoyed my Shaker stories too, Doris. I have the most patient readers who are willing to let me explore different types of stories. I really appreciate that.
As the Shaker went along some of their rules relaxed. Eventually they sometimes had somebody reading a newspaper aloud to them while they ate. But they did believe in celibacy, community living and confession. Perhaps having to number the thing you did wrong helped you live better on another day.
I honestly don’t know anything about the Shakers, but I really enjoyed the excerpt & would love to throw my name in the pot. Thanks Ann
Author
Throwing your name in my Shaker drawing bonnet. Glad you enjoyed Lacey’s spring dance scene, Robin.
I don’t know much about about the Shakers but I do know they are hard working people !
Author
They were very hard working, Evelyn. The Shakers believed they could show their love of God through their work. That was one way they worshiped – by doing each job as perfectly as they could. That workmanship showed up in the furniture they built, the buildings in their villages, the brooms and baskets they made, and the food they cooked.
I would NOT want to be a Shaker, I love my husband and children too much to give them up, but I do love reading about them in your books. Thanks for the opportunity to win another book, Ann.
Author
I’m with you, Lisa. No Shaker life for me. But if you didn’t have a husband and kids, it might have been nice to have so many sisters to help with the chores. I’m glad you enjoy reading about them.
What I admire about The Shakers is their Devotion to God,and concern for social justice, which translated into action.
Author
They did have many admirable traits and ideas and then they had some that were a little harder for most to go along with, Emily.
I’m currently reading The Blessed, and this part brought tears to my eyes. My grandfather fought dandelions most of his life. He considered them weeds. A few weeks after his passing I visited his grave. And it had a thick blanket of dandelions covering it too. He always called them “weeds”. I call them tenacious rays of sunshine.
I think the more I read and learn about the Shakers, the more I admire their simplicity. And their gift of preparing great food!
Have a beautiful day, Ann. It’s more like October today, even though a bit too chilly for me. But that blue sky is stupendous!
Author
Hi, Lavon. Hope you are enjoying Lacey’s story. Thanks for sharing about your blanket of dandelions on your grandfather’s grave. Many do agree with his way of thinking dandelions are weeds, but even if you think that, you have to admire the tough little flower/weeds.
We are getting our October blue sky even if it is cooler than normal.