Tag: plants

Rose of Jericho

These are just a small collection of orchids that we keep on top of our “tranquility pond.” I bought many of them on impulse, during grocery store specials. After their blooms would fall off, I used to start to worry, and do everything that I could to make them bloom again. I often ended up over-watering them, over-spraying them with Orchid food, often to their detriment. My wise husband talked me into bringing them outside, hanging some under some trees and placing many of them here on top of the pond. Now I leave them alone for the most part, just occasionally watering them, and they are so happy. They bloom regularly. They trust in their own natural growth cycles, and now, in my wisdom which I gleaned from experience, so do I.

Above is “The Rose of Jericho” plant. It appears to be just a dead ball of twigs or leaves, but when placed in water it turns green again. It can continue this cycle again and again, drying and withering into a tight little ball, only to open wide up to the fertility and freshness of life, when it is ready to do so, and the conditions are right.

This time of year is the perfect time of year to meditate on your own resurrection experiences, in your own life. This time of year is the perfect time of year to see how many “springs”, both real and metaphorical, have occurred in your lifetime, as you have evolved into the being who you are today. The plants know when it is time to be dormant, and when it is time to bloom. They trust that the conditions will be right for their inevitable growth cycles. If plants and animals live in ease with the cycles of nature, why don’t we?

I read a good story the other day that said we can push “the reset” button whenever we want to, on our own lives, on our own days, on our own minutes. This is a time of year when the “Reset” button is just begging to be pushed. It is big and green and it is raring to go, with big plans for us to grow and to bloom and to come alive again in new splendor. Press the “Reset” button. Press it again, and even again, if you have to, but then trust the cycles. Bask in the nurturance and abundance all around you, and just bloom. Open up to life and bloom.

“If you want your story to be magnificent, begin by realizing you are the author, and every day is a new page.” – Mark Houlahan

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Here is the question of the day from 3000 Questions About Me:

1160. What “new beginning” are you most looking forward to?

The Adventures of Mrs. Potato Head

Yesterday, I decided to follow my own advice. I became Mrs. Potato Head (see yesterday’s blog post) on a scavenger hunt. I needed to get out of my usual routine rut. The maori mask above is what started my wild goose chase. I suppose what really started this whole adventure, was that Ralphie, our Labrador retriever, in exuberance and excitement for my husband gathering balls to be thrown into our pool for retrieving, knocked over a plant which we have had in our possession for over 27 years. This plant has lived with us since it first adorned our first son’s nursery. The ceramic pot which housed it, miraculously had lasted that long, too, through several moves to several homes in three different states. Thankfully, the plant survived, but the pot was dust. So I went to my favorite local nursery, which is so wondrous, you feel like you are in fairyland when you are there. Butterflies swarm the vivid colored plants everywhere that you look. While there, I purchased another fantastic pot for our precious plant and then I decided that I must also have the magnificent Maori mask decoration, too. (see above) Honestly, there were about 300 different lawn decorations I would have loved to bring home, too, including a life sized concrete collie, and a giant, colorful pot shaped like a pufferfish, but (probably by my husband’s design and foresight, in order that I don’t bring home too many large, strange, cluttery collections of concrete figurines), I don’t drive a pickup truck. Anyway, the Maori mask was signed by the artist, so I looked up the artist on the internet. (I figured I didn’t want our Maori to be lonely. I thought that perhaps he may need another kitschy friend.) It turns out that the maker of the Maori is a local guy. The artist of this mask refers to himself as a “yardist”. (I love this title. I may have to become a “yardist”, too.) His garden artwork consists of zany, brightly colored Tikis, cheeky oranges with sailor hats, and his top-featured “Pot Heads”, all having a mid-century flair to them. From his Instagram, I tracked down a local store that carries shelves of his artwork, and I purchased a Garden Girl, which is part of his “Pot Head” collection:

My Garden Girl will not be lonely. I love Pot Heads. I have collected various Pot Heads throughout the years (made by all different artists/yardists). I have Pot Heads all over my yard. Here are a couple of other Pot Heads who live at our home:

Now you would think this particular adventure and its story, in itself, would be enough for one day, but wait, there’s more. Happy with my purchase of my lovely new Garden Girl Pot Head, I headed to my car, and I crossed a little nature/bike trail that we have here, which runs through miles of our local beach towns. On the trail I noticed a black mailbox, with a large sign that said, Love Letters on it. I was admittedly curious, so when I got to my car, I went straight to the internet, on my phone, and that’s when I discovered the story of the Love Letters mailboxes.

It turns out that a local young lady was suffering some heartbreak after a toxic relationship ended, and so she would go to a rocky spot near one of our beaches every single day, in order to process her feelings and sometimes write them out. She found comfort and healing in doing this and she wondered if other people did the same thing. So on a whim, she placed a mailbox there, in between some rocks, with a Love Letters sign on it, and in the mailbox, she placed a notebook and some pens, with a note that encouraged people to write their own love letters in it. She welcomed them to sign their letters or to keep them anonymous, whichever they preferred. The young lady was amazed at how many letters that she would read, every few days when she would return to her spot. It gave her joy that her special spot gave so many other people comfort, too, and she felt connected to these people, despite never having met them. Interestingly, she kept her mailbox secret from her friends and family, but when she witnessed how many people utilized the mailbox and wrote their own Love Letters, she decided to tell her loved ones about it. They all thought that the mailboxes were a wonderful idea, and they encouraged her to make more of them. Now there are dozens of these Love Letters boxes sprinkled all over our area, and beyond. Daynie Cutler, the creator of the Love Letters mailboxes says that the most poignant letter that she has ever read was a love letter from a father to his daughter who had passed away two years previous, but she feels touched and moved by them all. So, did I go back and read some of the letters in the Love Letters mailbox that I had stumbled upon? Of course, I did! And they were beautiful. Some spoke of the pure joy of celebrating milestone birthdays with their favorite people. One was from a soldier thanking his friends and family for sending notes and packages to him while he was away and how happy he was to be back home with them. Another letter, promised that the young couple writing the letter would come back to this same spot and get engaged to be married in a few years. This is the letter that really put in a lump in my throat:

I wonder if these people have any idea just how much they mean to this writer? She/he loves them “with all that I am.” His or her people sent her/his loneliness packing!! Sometimes the depth of our love can be so hard to express. How wonderful to have a safe place to send a love letter out into the Universe! How wonderful that there are people like the quirky “yardist” and the Love Letters mailbox creator, Daynie Cutler, who bravely put their full, joyful, vulnerable selves “out there” which genuinely encourages others to allow themselves to do the same! Despite all of the negativity, and the pain, and the evil and the sadness that is out there in our world, there is so much good. Be a potato head today! Go to a wonderful nursery. Write a love letter. Be curious to look for the good. You will find it everywhere. Sometimes you will find good in the most surprising of places. Do it. Look for the good. It will do you good. Then please come back to here on the blog and tell us about what you found in my Comments section. It will do us all some good.

Here is my love letter to you, my readers: Simply stated, I love you. I am so utterly grateful that you come here and read my blog. I feel so “heard” and “seen” despite never meeting most of you in person. You have made a huge difference in my life. You have helped me to safely and bravely speak my truth and given me a place to truly be myself. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

UGH

I’m sorry. The last 24 hours have been a little nuts around here. We had a big storm that broke off most of our beautiful, bounteous bougainvillea around an archway by our front door. Our fun Friday was spent cutting up branches for the garbage truck to take away this week. I am sad, but I know how feisty and resilient this particular plant is, as it came back from a hurricane one time.

Today, I only have a joke that made me giggle to offer up to you. I’ll do better tomorrow. Joke:

A snake walks into a bar and the bartender says, “How?”

I appreciate you, friends.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Wednesday’s Whimsies

+“Fire rests by changing,” wrote ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus. In accordance with astrological omens, I ask you to meditate on that riddle. Here are some preliminary thoughts: The flames rising from a burning substance are always moving, always active, never the same shape. Yet they comprise the same fire. As long as they keep shifting and dancing, they are alive and vital. If they stop changing, they die out and disappear. The fire needs to keep changing to thrive!” – Rob Brezsny

I think that the older I get, the harder it is to embrace change. I think to myself, “I’ve worked so hard to get where I am. Why risk it?” But then, that restless, unsettled, fidgety feeling sets in and the only thing that remedies that feeling is adding a little variation to the mix. Yesterday, I signed up for a combination meditation/painting class at a local Arts center for a few weeks, later this fall. My fire flickered in a new direction and it feels good.

+ Most of the plants that we have around the house, we have had for years. But every year they look a little different. Plants that were lush and beautiful one year, are sometimes a little scrawny and leggy in other years. But sometimes, just like us, one of our plants has “their year”. This is “the year” for this particular plant. It is full and happy and showy and proud. And I am beaming for it. I can’t help but notice it every time I step outside and I’m not even mad about it covering up the unique features (particularly two cool magenta dragons) of my antique jardiniere. If you, just like this lovely plant, are having “your moment” right now, let yourself shine! We are all better for it. It’s inspiring. It’s beautiful. It’s hopeful. And if this is one of your barely hanging on moments, don’t be a hater to the lush. Use its “busting-out-of-its-seams-beamingness” as a reminder and an inspiration, that your superabundant season is right around the corner. There is always room for everyone to bloom, in each of our own wild, wonderful and unique ways. The most fabulous garden is one that is full of unique, and individually interesting plants, all teeming with life and vitality.

+ The other day, I was in a grumpy, grouchy mood. And because I was in that kind of dismal mood, I felt like I had to justify it. Things that were really no big deal, I let grow exponentially in my mind, in order to account for my “no good, rotten, very bad” mood. My ridiculous, “privileged” rant looked like this: “We didn’t get mail. Work on our house would have to be extended into the next morning. A bill was incorrect. It’s hotter than hell . . . .” Now on another day that I was feeling better, none of that triviality would have registered a bleep on my mood meter. I honestly don’t know why I was really feeling so grumpy. It could have been bad sleep. It could have been “stuff” my subconscious is working out. The point is, sometimes you just have to feel your feels, and then let them go. There doesn’t always have to be a true reason, or an explanation, or something/someone to blame for the ways that we feel. And our feelings do not need to be fed and bolstered and blown out of proportion by our minds. Feelings are meant to be as transient as the winds. (And if you want to hang on to your good feelings, they are best fertilized with gratefulness.)

+ Yesterday, I saw a trailer for a movie based on The Hunger Games‘ prequel. I never knew that the prequel book existed. Before I even got home, while I was in the movie theater, I downloaded The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes to my Kindle and I can’t wait to start reading it. The Hunger Games books are some of the best books which I have ever read! The prequel novel by Suzanne Collins apparently came out in 2020. How did I miss this fact?! I had some time on my hands to read books in 2020. Didn’t we all??? If you didn’t know this and you are as excited about it as I am about it, you’re welcome.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Seeds

“The day you plant the seed is not the day you eat the fruit. Be patient and stay the course.” – Fabienne Fredrickson

My youngest son has started a sales job this summer, and this past week he has experienced a lot of frustration, feeling like his efforts aren’t going anywhere. Having been in sales, at his same age, I remember those feelings all too well. A huge part of doing well in sales is keeping the faith and staying the course. In sales, you tend to get disappointed by targets you work your tush off for, and then end up with delicious surprise sales, that almost seem like a gift out of nowhere. The fruits of your labors, often pop out where you least expect them to be.

I remember reading once, that if we instantly got everything that we wanted right when we asked for it, we would quickly become overwhelmed. (Ever arrive home to a pile of Amazon boxes at your front door, full of impulse purchases??) We would soon find out that half the things that we thought we wanted, were things that we really didn’t want, in the long run. Ideas and creations and intentions that have spent some time, hibernating, cocooning, and then even some more time percolating and simmering, usually give us the best refined and blooming results of whatever it is that we are truly and ultimately seeking.

Plant your seeds. Do what you can for these seeds. Water them, make sure they get some light and heat, fertilize your seeds with excitement and optimism, but don’t hover over them, with wringing hands. Be patient. Believe that before you know it, you will be filling baskets full of the ripe fruits of your own labors.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Hangin’ Around Friday

Happy Friday!!! Happy Favorite Things Friday!!! Before I get to my favorite for today (hint: see above), I wanted to share two interesting things. One, I just read that the reason why Redwood trees are the tallest living thing on Earth is because they intertwine their roots and they share their water. Isn’t that beautiful? What’s your “water”? (i.e. special gift or talent that was meant to be shared to make our world a more beautiful place) Share your water today, and stand taller for doing it.

And two, I had a really interesting, kind of hilarious conversation yesterday. I was doing quite a few returns at a local department store. I was being waited on by quite the colorful lady. She and I both agreed that we especially enjoy the thrill of getting quality items, at discounted prices. The lady, a quirky, jumpy, constantly smiling, slim, elfin type of a person told me, “My talents aren’t limited to bargain hunting. I’m just the kind of person who knows people. I get what a want.”

“What are you, a mobster?” her coworker quipped and we all three nervously giggled.

“No,” the confident lady replied. “For example, I get reservations where no one can get reservations. I get to the best seats at games, and I get backstage passes when I want them.”

My curiosity overcame me. “Okay, so how do you do that? What’s your trick?” I said, half-believing her.

“I just call ’em up, or I show up and I say I’m with Senator So and So’s party and then I march right to wherever I want to go.”

“Do you ever get called out?” I asked.

“Only one or two times, but then they still let me go on through, and I think it’s because they admired my pluck. The key is to have total confidence. Know that you belong in the place where you want to be, and act on it. Never show doubt.” And then she smiled like a self-pleased Cheshire cat, who was already dreaming about her next stunt to pull off.

Okay, back to the moment that you have been waiting for: today’s favorite. (See above) Another Studio’s plant animals are like jewelry for your plant babies. They are adorable and light and rest easily on even the lightest of leaves. They come in many different varieties (I personally purchased the bee and the gecko). They run around $7-$8 a piece. I got mine at a local store but you can go to their website and purchase them from there. For those plain plants of yours who don’t naturally flower, why not give them a cute little bling of their own with an A-S plant animal?

Have a great weekend, friends. Find the small things/experiences that bring a smile to your face, and buy them, and relish them and act on them (and share your water). See you tomorrow!

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Free Friday

As a woman from a family who has many members who have served in our military branches, and who has married into a family of many members who have served in our military branches, I couldn’t be prouder. There is no greater sacrificial service, than to be willing to put your life on the line for something bigger and more important than yourself. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We honor you. Veterans will always, always be a favorite of mine.

Happy Friday, friends!!! Friday is the best day of the week, in my opinion. Therefore I keep it light on Fridays and I only discuss the frivolous – essentially material stuff that I like. On Fridays, I offer up one of my favorites, whether it be a book, a movie, a product, a website, etc. and I ask you to add your own favorites to my Comments section. Please also check out previous Friday posts for more favorites.

Today’s favorites are hilarious plant stakes that I purchased at a local plant shop, but it turns out that you find all sorts of these sticks of cute-funness, on Etsy. (With that in mind, before you know it, every one of our own dozens of plants will soon have their own stake.) These plant stakes make me smile and giggle to myself every time that I look at them, so besides the delicious clean oxygen my plants offer up to me, now they make me giggle and smile on the daily, too. How great is that?! What a simple, easy, inexpensive way to add delight into your own life.

Have a wonderful weekend! See you tomorrow.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Rootin’

credit: titsay, Twitter

Years ago, I had a friend whose “tagline” so to speak, was “I’m rootin’ for you!” He said it all of the time, and he said it to everyone. He himself had overcome huge obstacles in his own life, and he was delighted to help others overcome their own troubles and concerns. When I saw this fun picture on Twitter this morning, I immediately thought of this kind, wise man.

What a beautiful thing to be a cheerleader for people, and a cheerleader for their hopes and for their dreams. What a wonderful visual of the darling daisy happily blooming, with her strong happy roots beneath her. When we are rooting for someone, I always envision yelling and cheering and hoping and praying for their victories in life, but before seeing this picture, I never thought of rooting, in terms of physical “roots”. Physical roots gather sustenance for plants, in order for them to be nourished and to thrive, and physical roots anchor plants, to keep them firmly planted in the ground, in order to help the plants stay grounded, in times of vicious winds and storms. This is the first time which I realize that “rooting for someone” is so much more than shaking some pom-poms. Rooting for people is helping to create the ever spreading, energic foundation, for their own success and happiness in their lives. It helps ensure that they will always bloom again, even in times when they have been taken down to their very bottom levels. How blessed we are to have the ability to root for people. How blessed we are to have people out there, rooting for us. Readers, know this always: “I’m rootin’ for you!” The more we root for people, the more beautiful our collective garden grows. How blessed we are . . . .

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Soul Sunday

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Good morning friends. It is a gorgeous morning here. My husband is biking, my daughter is doing a beach clean-up for one of her high school clubs (tough work – ha!) and I have the quiet, sensuous morning all to myself, here at the house. Even our three dogs are lazily lounging in their own spots in the sun. I am basking in this moment, because everything feels right in my world, and it reverberates throughout my entire being. I wish the same for you.

I’ve been in a particularly sentimental mood this weekend, for reasons unknown. Our moods come in and out with the tides sometimes. My regular readers know that I devote the blog to poetry on Sunday. I wrote this poem, about this precious plant of ours, which I only starting pondering about yesterday, because a plant enthusiast friend of mine, and myself, were sharing pictures of our various plants with each other. Sometimes the most meaningful, reliable, steadfast things in our lives, are so easy to take for granted. This green beauty fully deserves her own poem.

“Our Philodendron”

You’ve been so easy to keep,

So hardy and resilient and adaptable,

Quietly going along for the ride,

Always just a trinket in the background,

Living in three states and at least a half a dozen houses.

You came to us in a beautiful celebration basket,

One we could scarcely afford.

We were embarking on a new, unknown adventure,

Another one we could scarcely afford.

You marked the start of our family,

Almost twenty-six years ago.

You adorned our baby’s nursery,

In the same elephant embellished pot,

That still firmly holds you in place right now.

You are vibrant, colorful and full of growth and life.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Beautiful, steadfast, Green Goddess that you are,

Let my tears of grateful joy, nourish your robust roots,

So that you may continue to thrive and to be a living symbol,

Of what truly is the heartfelt center of my very soul.

The Bougainvillea

bougainvillea | plant genus | Britannica

The first time I saw a bougainvillea flowering bush, I was visiting Puerta Vallarta, Mexico. My husband had just finished a grueling MBA program, which he worked on obtaining, at night, for three years, after working all day at his regular job. We were celebrating his graduation, and our growing family. We had our two-year-old son with us, and I was very pregnant with our second son. Our eldest son has curly, red hair and the older Mexican women were convinced that his rare hair meant good luck. They made a point of coming over to us to pat his head for the transfer of good luck, wherever we went – the beach, the stores, the restaurants, the pool, the bus. My son loved the attention, and we found it amusing and endearing. I’ll never forget it.

Back to the bougainvillea – I became as entranced with the plant, as the women were with my son’s silky red curls. The bougainvillea was everywhere I looked. It was so robust and beautiful and apologetically flowing. I had never seen such a bright, vibrant, cascading waterfall of flowers. I honestly fell in love with a plant, for the first time in my life.

Now I grew up in Pennsylvania, and that is where we were living at the time. We had a townhouse with a large window on the second floor, directly above our front door. Despite the fact, that Pennsylvania does not at all have a climate that suits a bougainvillea, I decided, against all odds, that we would have one. I found a lovely wrought iron window box and somehow, somewhere in Pennsylvania, I was able to obtain a small, hopeful twig of a bougainvillea plant. I proudly planted it, in that showy window box, as an homage to all of the gorgeous window boxes, filled with bougainvilleas, everywhere I looked in Mexico. I couldn’t wait for the window box to overflow with flowers.

My bougainvillea plant did okay. It half-heartedly made it through the summer, with a couple of sparse blooms. It tried its best. The bougainvillea inherently knew that it’s a naturally, hardy plant, so it soldiered on, but honestly, the plant just wasn’t “at home”, at all, in the northern state. It’s a tropical plant. Before the first snow, the bougainvillea was nothing more than a few leafless sticks, sitting like a plant cemetery, unwelcomingly on top of our front door. Here was another lesson in life, learned by me, the hard way.

In retrospect, this was one of the many times in my life, when I didn’t let what was coming to me, come at its own accord, and in its own divine timing. I impatiently tried to push my own agenda, before it was time. It’s a lesson in which I have had to repeat again and again and again, many, many times in my life. It sometimes seems impossible for me, to learn to surrender to the higher forces in my life. I am still trying to learn to trust that what is meant for me, will arrive for me, when the timing is right, and it will be even more wonderful than I ever imagined. (I should trust this fact. It has been proven to me, again and again and again.) If I am honest with myself, at the ripe old age of 50, I am still learning to trust the process of Life. I am still learning to trust God/Universe to provide for me in all of the ways in which I have imagined. The Higher Forces do so much better for me, than I do for myself, but alas, I’m a stubborn fool (again and again and again).

Today, we live in Florida. When we purchased our home, one of the first things we did, was to go to the local nursery, which is filled with inexpensive, overpowering, over-flowering bougainvilleas. Bougainvilleas are so common here, that I think that some people may consider them to be giant, overbearing weeds. We purchased two small potted bougainvilleas, and we planted them on either side of an arch, which leads to our front door. In less than a year, the two small potted plants, furiously grew and came together at the top of the arch, becoming one with each other. The plant has flourished ever since. Our bougainvillea is so healthy and happy, that it has survived over-zealous tree trimmers, being split in two during a hurricane, and being roughly pushed around by painters and plaster repair people. In fact, we have to give our gorgeous bougainvillea “a haircut” more often than we get our own haircuts. This plant is the bougainvillea that I always dreamed about since the minute I laid eyes on bougainvilleas in Mexico. It is perfect. I knew that I would have this beautiful bougainvillea to gaze upon whenever I need a shot of inspirational vigor and exuberance. I just had to wait for my bougainvillea to arrive in the perfect way, at the perfect time, just as my deepest self knew that it always would. When will I learn?

Lovely quote on perfect timing. | Inspirational quotes motivation, Words quotes, Words

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.