....she loves me back

Yogis,
Many people give me plants as gifts. Often a new type of plant enters my garden as a seedling dug from a friend’s garden. Others give me house plants and quite a few orchids have passed through my door.

An orchid always arrives in robust health and covered with blooms. They are beautiful! There is something magical about an orchid flower. Dainty yet sensual and I swear I see a tiny angel when I look deep inside each bloom.  They are also finnicky. By the next year with no buds in sight they go into a slow decline. I have not been successful with orchids.

Until this one…….

A friend gave it to me two Christmas’s ago. I read up once again about the best way to water and waded through conflicting advice. I went with the three ice cubes once a week approach. I paid closer attention to which windows received the best sun throughout each of the seasons and moved her accordingly. The following Christmas I started watching. January passed. February. Until one day I saw the telltale stem beginning its ascent. She was magnificent! This year she once again shone. I feel like she winks at me from across the room each time I pass.

Was this a different type of orchid, or had I somehow done my part better?

I was given a snake plant many years ago. I had it in the window of a guest bedroom on the ground level. For years she did what I would call ‘ok’ but not a whole lot of change and her tall leaves were always flopping over. One day as I was in there changing the sheets I glanced over and I swear she asked why she was left alone in this bedroom. Oh, alright, as I carried her up to my reiki room where many of my plants live. This room has music, essential oils, reiki sessions and my breath. She is now absolutely enormous and even flowers! Who knew?

In the clearing of the strip of woods next to my house I uncovered a redbud tree that for fourteen years I never knew was there. I removed all the vines, gave her a trim, fluffed her up and made sure there is space around her. Every day I go by to check on her and touch her leaves. I tell her how happy I am to have found her. In return, when the sun points in her direction she beams at me. I can see her aura and it seems like she has already grown if that is possible.

We often talk about how we must love the earth to have any hope of healing her, but I recently read an essay which asked, ‘Does the earth love us back?’

What do you think? Can she love us? ‘Yes, yes, yes!’ I answer without hesitation. No matter how much I do to take care of my garden, the earth gives me it back tenfold. Like any loving relationship we both have a role.

Weeding…..giving them a drink……planting a seed……brushing against them…..my attention……trimming……leaning in to smell them……placing them in vases in my home……eating them in my salad.  All the ways I show my love. A flower……a cucumber…….butterflies……..the hummingbird……. shade on a hot day…….dragonflies…….the smell of mint…….the first firefly. Her return.

Earth is a being. I know she wants to be in relationship with us. The more attention we pay, the more we receive. Like a parent, she will love us even if we don’t fulfill our obligations, but its so much more fun to hold hands and skip together.

I hug trees,
SARAH