Little flower

A name with a meaning. I've mentioned before that my Ojibwe name is Waawaaskonehs, it means Little Flower and for most of my life I thought "oh, that's cute, but I wish is held some crazy powerful meaning" like some names sound powerful and strong but little flower always sounds so delicate and cute. It wasn't until this year that I've also heard it described as little wild flower, or first flower and heard those versions helped me to value my name. The first flower after a cold winter brings the hope of summer. And a wildflower finds what it needs to grow. Lately I've been reflecting on dandilions and how we call them weeds, but really those flowers have strong roots, they can be run over, stepped on and pulled out but if it's not plucked by the roots it'll come right back up. Dandilions are resilient. They are one of the first flowers to come up in spring, bees need them and everyone benefits from their leafs, we have dandilion teas, and put them in our salads because of their healing properties. I met a woman today who told me she gets messages from spirits, I didn't discredit her but I'm skeptical about about people who come out and say "spirits speak to me". But I chose to listen to what she had to say, she apologized to me and for my mom's residential school history, she apologized on behalf of her ancestors. Then she started telling me a story that happened to her. She saw a lady speak about indigenous history at our workplace, and how the spirits talk to her using flowers. She told me how she kept getting images of dandilions, and said this spirit was showing her dandilions and felt as though Merle (the Spirit) wanted the lady presenting to know she was like a dandilion. I just met this lady, and here she is telling me some random story about my aunt Merle showing her dandilions... This lady didn't even know my English name let alone my Ojibwe name, she doesn't know I've been observing dandilions, didn't knows that the spirit she saw was my aunt... And here she is apologizing to me about residential school, and for telling me this story because she doesn't normally talk like this around people she doesn't know. Here I am sitting at my desk with a sinus infection, yet feeling empowered being Waawaaskonehs - the little flower.