Barren to Blossom

Tuesday, 13th August 2013

I’ve never been good with plants. Except succulents. They’re the one plant I don’t think I can kill. But my partner has a green thumb. Each morning, he makes his rounds to each of our potted friends. He waters them, hovers over them, thinks with them, patiently with more care then Gandhi.

In the beginning, we’d get fancy dirt and the right pots, and we’d have to find just the right spot for them to live where the indirect sunlight would be ideal. And when I say we, I mean him. I just tagged along for the ride. It’s a foreign tribe. Sometimes it’s challenging to consider people, let alone plants. But then again, there is a naked expression in moments like these. Because clearly it doesn’t count in the big picture sort of way, something is revealed. Because my guard is down I see where I’m thoughtless. If I’m honest, when I’m home alone, I don’t think about the plants at all. I just bask in the green love that permeates in every direction.

I’m embarrassed to say I’ve been oblivious to the fact that my partner has managed to nurture our orchids for three consecutive springs in a few iterations of barren to blossom. My attention was elsewhere. I was most likely dreaming, creating something from nothing, alone, inspired, and totally self-involved. In retrospect, I wonder if the plants are part of what fuels my flourish. While he was feeding them, they were feeding me. And even though I don’t water and dote on them as I should, the orchids pay no mind. They shower me with love each and every morning, despite my natural narcissism.

So now the plants have become a reminder, a silent inspiration in the power to watch. What happens when you decentralize? Can you catch yourself in a moment of self absorption, wrapped up in your own little world and consider the creative process ~ what you might have missed that has gone from barren to blossom?