Once you key on to the fact that with every new day comes an opportunity to learn from everything around you (both living and otherwise), you become a scribe. Consistent journaling has definitely helped me become more disciplined at being a student of life.
If you want to skip this article altogether and watch a short video of it, click here.
And something happened recently that I decided to not only put words on paper but also on a moving screen. So, my friends and I know me to be a plant serial killer not because I intentionally want to hurt the plant but because I have a special love for them. I ignore them for the longest time, and when I suddenly remember them, I smother them with so much love (water) they drown and die. So, I've been dubbed a "dark thumb." And yeah, I've killed too many a cacti, it's so shameful.
But I don't give up. I really want to get better at this.
As I write this, I have been able to keep two big pots of aloe Vera, one bamboo plant, a succulent, and three mini cacti alive - for more than six months! Which is probably a record-breaking move for me.
But those are the easy plants, you might say? I agree too. It's why in December I bought a rose plant (which was on clearance). Unknowing to me, they bloom in the summer. So, after trying to feed and nourish it and not seeing it grow (in fairness to me, it actually began to regress), I transferred it to my backyard. As a way of telling nature to come take back of its own. And she did! Imagine my surprise, months later, when the flowers began to sprout. And the most fantastic thing about this was I had no input on this, whatsoever!
This got me pondering about life. My take from this plant are thus:
Seasons are very important in life. From a devotional that my friends and I have been studying (Anonymous by Dr. Alicia Britt Chole), it talked a lot about the hidden years of Jesus and the relative importance of that to his ministry. Winter, was the analogy she gave for those years, given its the most "inactive" period. Winter is a season that a lot of us are not comfortable with because, in that season, it seems like nothing is happening. But winter is the most important season of our lives because there is so much going on underneath, even when we or others don't see it. Inactivity does not mean non-activity.
Patience is a virtue to exercise, especially when things are not going our way. It's of the things I struggle with too. But just as flower buds in its own time, we also will bud when it's our time.
Letting Go(d). Sometimes you need to get out of the way to let things happen, especially for people like me with control issues (of which, what exactly are we in control of? Nothing!) You have to relax and let things happen. Well, can I say the plant survived because Mo was finally out of the way? Lol!
So there you have it—three reflections from a recovering plant killer.
Let me know your think and if you too have plant-killing tendencies.
Did you like this post? Kindly share and leave a comment as well. And kindly consider supporting my writing by being a paid subscriber. But no pressure, you can still get occasional freebies like this post. Click the link below for more deets.
PS: Picture sources: Google and Pixabay