resilient like...

...my plant.
I wish I could tell you what sort of plant it is. I really should know. Or learn. Or something. But after three years of taking care of it, I sort of like its unknown identity because I have grown to love it not because it's a rose and acts like a rose or because it's a fern and acts like a fern but because it's some sort of amazingly resilient and hardy plant that puts up with my weak attempts at being a green thumb. Here are the parts of care taking that I do well:
- I make sure it gets plenty of water (even in a drought-like summer)...yes, I'm training it well...hydration is important!
- I look at it every day as I come and go from my condo
- I trim it back when the branches get brittle or die
And, yeah, that's about it.
I used to be good about covering it up when it freezes but one year I forgot one too many times, nearly wrote it off, and then discovered that I have the most resilient plant in the world (okay, next to the weeds in your yard, kudzu, and poison ivy...). It came back. Bright green springy leaves as alive as ever. So now, it freezes every year...and I keep my fingers crossed that it will come back and, as the picture shows, I'm in luck yet again this year. I looked at it in a bit of awe today thinking, "I really don't deserve you, plant. That you keep coming back even when I'm afraid I've ignored you too much is amazing." And that notion alone intrigues me and makes me think, "In what areas of my life do I (or other people) just keep coming back? And is there something to be said for that?" And beyond that, "just what sort of strength does this plant have and can that be a model for me...of rest (during the winter) and stretching (in the spring), and blooming (in the summer), then starting to drift away into the fall...sort of a lovely life cycle." Full of all sorts of strength and courage to return year after year in spite of a mediocre owner and some sometimes terrible winter weather. (This year...imagine the extreme warmth of our summer becoming the intense cold of this past winter.) But back to my plant.
It's a good reminder to me of resilience, of never giving up, of not letting others call the shots for you...of coming back to the living world even when you've hibernated for a while or when others don't give you all the attention that you deserve. Who would have thought a little plant I had pretty much "hung out to dry" could reveal so much?!