Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Lesson

      So as many of you know I recently lost my grandfather. Though I miss him and all his antics dearly thats not the reason for this post. Anywho, during his funeral someone sent a plant to the family with a card that read "Give to Amanda". With that my grandmother charged me with the task of caring for this beautiful arrangement.
    First of all I was terrified because I have a self proclaimed black thumb. I have never successfully cared for a plant that has survived more than two weeks. The last plant I had my dad gave away because after a week it was headed for a cliff. Needless to say the task seemed slightly ovewhelming.
   So, I brought the plant home which managed to survive the trip from VA and after a few days I remembered to take it to my office. By the time it got to my office it was It was alive but starting to  droop. I put it in the window and it started to show some signs of life. After a few days it was starting to suffer again so I did what I thought was best.  I gave it to my coworker who has a self proclaimed green thumb. I would visit it and speak to it but I didn't want the responsibility of caring for it.
   Well after a couple weeks I notice every weekend I'd come I'm and my poor plant would be rushing toward is demise.  I'd go water it and talk to it and after an hour or so it would spring back to life. After a about 3 weeks of this my Co worker gave the plant back.
   Though I dreaded that its fate would be worse with me I took a deep breath and began to care for the plant the best I could.  I'd water it turn it so that each part of it got sun.  I began to notice on the weekends it would still be vibrant. It had begun to sprout new leaves. I was proud of myself, maybe there was hope for me after all.  :)
   I tell this story because caring for my plant has taught me some valuable lessons.  The first being that past failures do not prevent future success. Just because you failed at something don't allow fear of failure to prevent you from trying again.
   The second and most important is when things are in there proper place they grow. As long as I tried to give my plant away it struggled but when I accepted the responsibility and cultivated it, it grew and continues to do so.  Likewise when we are in our proper place naturally and spiritually we grow and flourish.  When the proper people take the time to cultivate what had been planted in us we flourish and reproduce. And while this process isn't always easy. There have been times that I had to uproot and prune away the dead parts of the plant the end result is and continues to be worth the process.