When I was a kid I used to hunt for dandelion puffballs so I could make wishes on them. My neighbours often caught me on their lawns or in their hedges looking furtive and stealthy as I searched for dandelions gone to seed.
I would gather them and then blow and blow making a wish with every feathery fragment that came loose and flew out into the wind.
I wished for the things only children wish for.
To find my wardrobe full of chocolates.
To see a real fairy up close.
To get magic red shoes like Dorothy.
That I could fly.
That unicorns were real.
Even though my wishes didn’t come true I still believed that some day they would. I believed that the Queen of all Fairyland collected the gossamer soft tendrils of the puffballs and filled her pillows with them so that she had the best sleep ever. How could she then not help but grant all the wishes?
Sometimes I see the puffballs and smile.
And I feel just the same as that little girl who believed in magic.
