See this?

Official green thumb

I earned it fair and square.  In January of this year, I took the plant below, which had been abandoned by its owner (aka my boss) and nursed it back to health.  Back then, I spoke about how wonderful it was to see it grow, especially since it looked so wretched when I first got it. 

Just a baby!

Clearly its steady diet of water and plant food pellets (administered only once) did it good.  Seven months later my plant shows every sign of taking over my office.  I actually moved it from its old location at my window because it was crawling along the floor, ever closer to my desk:  I was afraid one day it would tap me on the shoulder and scare me to death.

There’s a bit more of it to the left

I have to admit that I always thought keeping a plant was difficult. I watched my mom raise hundreds of plants over the years, some of which she would give to friends, only to have them report weeks or months later that the plant had died.  My attention span is rather short, and my affinity for plants is nowhere near my mom’s (she calls them her babies after all), but what I discovered is that regular attention in the form of clipping off wilted leaves and watering works wonders. 

If I can do this for something inanimate, something that means so little to me in the grand scheme of things, why it is so hard to show that level of consistent care and concern for the things that I claim do matter to me?  For one, this is easier.  It’s easy to water some plants; it’s much harder to probe into feelings, motivations, that part of you that you don’t like and hope goes away but never does.  It’s easier to change those small things that don’t matter; trying to change the big things is so much more daunting.

Filed under: Introspective, Mundane by jummy