This post is also available in: Español (Spanish)
Are you the type of person who likes to take care of plants and have them around your house? Or do you have a bunch of artificial plants at home because you don’t have the proverbial “green thumb”? For a long time, I was in the second category. I was completely convinced that natural plants hated me. I believed the person who told me one day that my energy was too heavy for the plants, so I was better off with artificial ones if I wanted a touch of green in my life.
I wanted to have a cute little garden on my balcony when I got married. The first plant I got was a poinsettia, since it was around Christmas when I decided to give caring for plants a try. To make the story short, the poor plant lasted fewer than three weeks, and that was enough time for me to give up on the idea of having a natural little garden. I bought two artificial plants and that was my “green supply.” I told myself that the person had been right—my energy wasn’t right for plants.
A few years later, when I started my first real office job here in the USA, I got a lucky bamboo. I was a little afraid, but I read that it was very easy to take care of that type of plant. That was back in March 2016, and I still have my beautiful lucky bamboo. It’s a happy plant, and I’m so grateful because it gave me the confidence to get other types of plants. My lucky bamboo has helped me to understand that my energy is just fine! Oh, and if by any chance you were wondering by now… yes, I do talk to my plants 😊
Now I actually do have a little garden on my balcony, and I love it. I also have indoor plants in my bedroom and living room. My little balcony garden is so happy that for the second time in less than a year, I have a special guest. A lovely mother dove has made her nest there and is brooding two eggs. It is a beautiful experience seeing the whole process from the moment they select the perfect little place until the little baby doves learn how to fly. I may write my life lessons from that experience in a later post.
Today, I want to talk about one little plant that I got few weeks ago. I was buying a big plant for my new office when I saw this cute little plant that looked like its leaves were perfectly designed as zebra stripes. When I went to pay for my big plant and the little green zebra, the cashier told me, “I have this same little plant at home, and let me just tell you—it is a very dramatic plant!” I started laughing and asked her why, and she told me, “You’ll see as soon as it needs a little water.”
I brought my little green zebra home (the actual name is calathea zebrina, in case you want to get one) and I put it in a special corner of my yoga room. The little zebra was a happy, glowing plant until few days later. When I entered the room to do my daily yoga practice, I saw the little plant all deflated. I watered it immediately and placed it back in the little corner. A few hours later it returned to its perfect, glowing, happy, beautiful self. I then realized why the cashier had said it was a very dramatic plant.
Why am I sharing this (maybe boring to you) plant story? Well, you know how much I like to learn lessons from pretty much everything I encounter in my daily situations, so here goes: the same way my little green zebra needs water every few days to keep glowing, we need to infuse our souls with positive energy so we can keep shining. I would love to go back to the store and tell the cashier that actually the plant isn’t dramatic; it’s simply living proof that it’s okay to demonstrate our need to be fed (or watered).
We are called “dramatic” when we scream for attention. We are called “dramatic” for letting out our emotions. But I think we need to let them out. I think it’s perfectly fine to let those around us know when we need “water” to glow. Most importantly, we need to be able to identify our need for water ourselves. The only difference between my little green zebra and us is that we can actually water ourselves when we notice we have run out of energy.
How do we water ourselves? The answer may depend on the reasons we ran out of water in the first place, but there are two universal, almost instant remedies for infusing our souls with that positive energy: gratitude and appreciation. We can always find something to be grateful for and something to appreciate. Once we enter that grateful and appreciative state of mind, our energy starts to go up like my little green zebra leaves when they drink in water. Just like that, we are glowing again.
If being dramatic means showing the world our energy is really low, then I want to be dramatic! I want to ask for water when I need it. I want to ask for help to get my energy back, so I can keep glowing! What about you?
Love,
Irene
