Lately I\u2019ve become somewhat of a plant mom. I used to be one who struggled to keep house plants alive. Sadly, I\u2019ve killed several over the years. A year ago, I had a total of four house plants. By the spring I had 10, hoping to keep them alive. As of today, I have 37 house plants and they are all thriving. I am thoroughly enjoying the variety of plants I have and how unique each one is. The difference in color, style, growth patterns, etc., is so fascinating to me. I am learning the different ways to care for each plant. Some need to be watered often while others don\u2019t need quite as much water. Some need to have their leaves cleaned often in order to get proper nourishment from the sunlight. Some plants need to be pruned often; others need to be staked so they don\u2019t fall over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The diversity of plants got me thinking about the diversity of people. Each plant is beautiful and unique in its own way. The same is true with people. Every person on our planet is beautiful and unique in their own way. Outwardly we see the uniqueness of people in the forms of shape, size, color of skin, hair, eyes, etc. We are also unique on the inside. We are unique in our personalities, the way we process our emotions, our talents, the traumas we\u2019ve endured, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As I daily care for my plants, I encourage them with uplifting words and loving touches. Yes, I\u2019m one of those people who talks to my plants. My plants all have names. I like to tell them how cute they are and encourage them on their new growth. If I find a leaf turning yellow, I investigate what\u2019s going on. Have I overwatered? Underwatered? Maybe I don\u2019t have them in the proper amount of sunlight. I don\u2019t shame my plant for turning yellow. Instead, I encourage it and do what I can to give it better care. When I do this, I find my plant\u2019s health improves. Have you ever noticed how much the people around you flourish when you encourage them when they\u2019re looking or acting unhealthy? Sometimes our default is to judge people who come across as unhealthy. It\u2019s important for us to recognize when that happens and make a conscious choice to encourage them. Perhaps they\u2019ve been overwatered, underwatered, or haven\u2019t had enough light in their lives lately. Choose to be the light for others. Be the light without putting expectations on how much time it should take for them to revive. Each person, just like each plant, will respond in its own way. Take my peace plant, Chanti, for example. Chanti is my oldest house plant. I\u2019ve had her for about 8 years now. For the past few years Chanti hasn\u2019t had a single flower on her. In the past few months some of her leaves have turned yellow and some leaves turned brown on the tips. I had her in a pot with no drainage hole and had her in a darker part of the house. I moved her to a bright window and pruned off the yellow leaves. She was still looking unhealthy, so I repotted her into a pot with a drainage hole. She drooped quite a bit after that, but I\u2019ve learned that\u2019s not uncommon after repotting. It\u2019s taking her time to adjust to her new environment and many leaves still have brown tips. The new growth is a beautiful green although you have to really look to find it as it can get lost amongst the older leaves. Isn\u2019t this just like people? When you start to shine light on people who have been in the dark for some time, there is beautiful new growth, but you have to look to find it. Just because you see the hardened parts of a person doesn\u2019t mean there\u2019s not growth taking place. Make a conscious effort to see and acknowledge the growth. Point out their beauty instead of their flaws. We tend to see our flaws quicker than our beauty, so we don\u2019t really need to point out the flaws in others. I\u2019m sure they\u2019re already aware. Choose to point out their beauty as this can encourage growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As I\u2019m sitting at my desk writing this, I\u2019m looking at the plants I have on my desk. Arthur is my beautiful purple sword alocasia. I\u2019ve only had Arthur for about a month and in that month he\u2019s grown five new leaves with three more uncurling. One thing I\u2019ve noticed about Arthur though, is that he occasionally cries at night. Little water droplets form on the tips of his leaves and fall. I haven\u2019t noticed this on any of my other plants, so I looked it up. Apparently, it is called guttation and it happens at night when the plant has absorbed too much water into its roots and needs to get rid of the excess. This is a natural process for Arthur and something that is needed in order to keep him healthy. It\u2019s important to remember that as humans, our emotions are vital parts of us as well. Some people process things more easily by letting the tears flow. If you\u2019re not one who cries easily you may see people\u2019s tears as a form of weakness. Tears can be a way to release internal pressures. Be aware of the differences in people and be quick to encourage rather than quick to judge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not every plant needs the same diet either. Marty McFly is my little Venus Flytrap and is the only one of my plants who likes to feed on fat, juicy flies. It would be ridiculous for me to try to feed flies to my other plants. Marty needs the flies, my other plants don\u2019t. Find out what the people in your life need and beware of force feeding them what you think they need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Plants, like people, grow at different rates. Junior, my asparagus fern, has one frond that grew so fast when I first got him about six months ago. Since then, he\u2019s barely grown at all although he\u2019s still very healthy. Guinevere, my silver sparkle pilea, has almost tripled in size since I got her two months ago. Madeline, my pink polka dot plant, has barely grown at all since I got her two months ago. These three plants are all very healthy even though they\u2019re growing at different rates. Sometimes we tend to look at people and expect them to grow faster than they should in certain areas. Be careful not to make the way growth occurs in your life the standard for everyone else. Allow people to grow at the rate they\u2019re supposed to. Don\u2019t criticize their growth, encourage them and be thankful they\u2019re growing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When you come across someone who has been broken and battered by life, don\u2019t see them as a hopeless case. Choose to love them back to health. Today I was blessed to get an alocasia portodora, also known as elephant ear or giant taro. I got him for free from a store because he was the last one of his kind there and he was very battered and bruised. This guy is almost as tall as me and his larger leaves are about 2ft long. I\u2019ve named him Paul McCartney and now I happily have all four Beatles as plants. Anyway, some of his leaves are broken and will need to be trimmed off and a few leaves have tears in them. The average person would have probably walked on by this plant in the store as he wasn\u2019t the most beautiful sight to behold. I felt compassion for him when I saw him and wanted to bring him home and help him heal and reach his full potential. Again, this makes me think of how we see people. Sometimes without even thinking, we can pass right by a person who looks like a hopeless case. No one is a hopeless case. Everyone needs love. It\u2019s up to each of us to make a conscious choice to love people, even if it\u2019s something as simple as smiling at them or having a conversation with them. Everyone is valuable, although not everyone feels like they\u2019re valuable. I encourage each of you as well as myself to ask ourselves how we can make others truly feel valuable. We can all improve in this area and in doing so we can make the world a more beautiful place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I hope that as you go about life, you think of people each time you see a plant. May it remind you to be conscious about the way you interact with people. Acknowledge the diversity as there is so much beauty in diversity. But don\u2019t stop at simply acknowledging the diversity, choose to give value to everyone as everyone needs to be valued.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lately I\u2019ve become somewhat of a plant mom. I used to be one who struggled to keep house plants alive. Sadly, I\u2019ve killed several over the years. A year ago, I had a total of four house plants. By the spring I had 10, hoping to keep them alive. As of today, I have 37 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":97,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/therainbowcentre.ca\/overtherainbow\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/09\/Robin.jpg","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therainbowcentre.ca\/overtherainbow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therainbowcentre.ca\/overtherainbow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therainbowcentre.ca\/overtherainbow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therainbowcentre.ca\/overtherainbow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therainbowcentre.ca\/overtherainbow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/therainbowcentre.ca\/overtherainbow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":244,"href":"https:\/\/therainbowcentre.ca\/overtherainbow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243\/revisions\/244"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therainbowcentre.ca\/overtherainbow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therainbowcentre.ca\/overtherainbow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therainbowcentre.ca\/overtherainbow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therainbowcentre.ca\/overtherainbow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}