Flying Flowers

Sunny resplendent glow 
around every tiny seed;

Silky softness in sinuous flow
shiny fluff of milkweed...

I remember chasing these fluffy little things as a child. The feather-soft stuff can barely be felt on your hand and therein lies the charm of capturing these seeds. 

I'd chase these 'flying flowers' all around the place and finally manage to capture a portion of it in my hand. And then, I'd store it away carefully in the closed pages of some favorite book or the other. Miraculously, I'd never find them again, no matter how hard I looked.

Years later, I still chase them around whenever they appear within my range of sight. The child in me chooses to stay the same, no matter how 'old' I grow. The only difference is that, today, I'm able capture these little marvels forever in a picture, if not within the folds of a book. 

I got lucky one fine sunny morning, on the way to the gym, when I saw a bunch of these 'flowers' hanging on to a little shrub. Every little silken strand glowed brightly in the sunlight. Needless to say, I forgot all about my workout in the excitement of trying to get a good shot before they 'flew' away, forever.

I had no idea what these seeds are called, and as usual, Google came to the rescue. An odd combo of keywords on the search bar yielded the name as 'Milkweed', a rather apt name, for these milky fluffs of joy.

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