Mar
14
2010
Death and renewal are connected: the lesson my plants taught me. I watch my house plants closely. Right now I am watching my rubber plant. So many leaves have dried up.
I keep giving it more water–to no avail. It is in a warm room. I noticed it has become taller. It is stretching to capture the sunlight. Although many leaves have dried up, it is not dead by any mean.
Plants adjust to their environment all the time. Some leaves dry up. Sometimes you may not water one enough so some leaves die so other can get enough water. There is a close relationship between death and renewal.
That is one lesson I can learn watching my plants’ growth. Those two are always connected. Sometimes there can’t be renewal until there is death. We can learn that lesson from observing our houseplants.
Sometimes that means you have to give up a goal and shift your attention elsewhere. Or someone dear to you may die before you start to grow again.
The same pattern always follows. In the words of Bob Dylan, and this is a paraphrase from one of his songs: you have to be busy dying before you can live.
And no one said there would be no pain in the process. There is just part of it. From death, comes birth. It is that simple. A lesson observing plants (and nature) taught me.
