Transformation
Life lessons from a potted plant.
I started my first professional job in 1996 after I graduated from college. I can still remember that fall day I walked into the market to buy something for lunch and saw the sweetest little Thanksgiving cactus sitting on a rack. She was just beginning her life as was I. She had about three springs that looked happy and healthy. One of them held the beginnings of a peachy-orange bud.
As soon as I saw her, I knew she was meant to spend her days with me. I took her back to my drab little office and gave her the important task of adding charm to it. She took her work seriously and has accompanied me to every office since then.
She and I have seen and heard a lot over the years. She was with me with each promotion which often meant a new home for her. She went with me when my job took me from New Hampshire to Virginia. She happily came home with me for good when I took a remote position in 2010. She knew she would no longer be left alone on nights and weekends.
As my professional career flourished so did she. With each passing year she grew bigger and brighter. She birthed many new babies from cuttings earning her the name “Mamma.”
Mamma’s blooms are impressive. I always enjoy showing her off on social media and have a few friends who look forward to seeing her beauty each year.
Mamma and her babies go outside for the summer months to enjoy fresh air and a change of pace. Normally, I put her under our pergola where she is protected from the elements. This year I decided against it because she has gotten so big I was afraid something might happen to her being so close to regular human activity.
I placed her with her babies on a plant bench on our deck where I thought she would be safe. One day I went to check on her and found the majority of her beautiful stems broken. Many were laying on the ground. Others were still in the pot disconnected from her root system. I suspect a squirrel, or some other animal, had used her as a springboard to hop into a tree or make a bed in.
At first, I was stunned and in shock. Was I really looking at Mamma in pieces at my feet? We have been together for almost 30 years. It was like seeing a friend beaten and battered. Then the grief and guilt set in. How could I be so stupid to put her somewhere she wasn’t safe?
As I gathered up her broken limbs, I noticed that a part of her remained intact, undamaged from the insult. Grateful, I cleaned her up and put her on the table under the pergola where she belonged in the first place. Her broken stems were cleaned and put in water in the hopes that I can root them, helping them transform into something new.
A few weeks have passed since the incident. Her resilience amazes me. She has new growth and the beginnings of her first buds of the season. I’m reminded once again of how her story mirrors mine. Perhaps this happened because Mamma was ready to let go and birth something new into the world.
As you may know, my career has gone through a major transformation. I have traded the financial over-abundance and false sense of security the comes with corporate life for a new way of being in the world that honors my soul calling. I too, am essentially starting over. And like Mamma, I have new growth and the beginnings of my own buds.
This journey of entrepreneurship has been quite a ride. At times it has been painful especially when I let my own self-worth get caught up in external validation. Hint: worthiness is in an inside job.
Take a listen to the last episode of the Find Your Frolic podcast to go deeper on this subject.
Episode 9: Worthiness
This episode goes to a deep and vulnerable place of personal discovery as I share an experience from our last in person retreat. I arrived in a dark place and left full of joy.
While this journey has its challenges, most of the time I find myself full of gratitude that I made the choice to listen to a deep calling within and try something new. With each page I write, retreat I lead and client I support, I am reminded how abundance comes in many forms.
For me, abundance is found in the power of nature, discovering true belonging, soul-level growth, and in supporting other amazing humans in their own personal and professional transformation. As Mary Oliver reminds us, we only get one shot at this. What will you do with yours?
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
Mary Oliver
My hope is that you will spend your days in alignment with your own soul calling. Life is too short to spend your time doing something that leaves you feeling depleted at the end of the day. You were born to do more than pay the bills. The world needs your art, your voice, your innovation now more than ever.
Be well and frolic on!
Barbara Doane is a writer, clarity coach and entrepreneurial doula. She works with individuals one-on-one to help them find clarity of purpose and birth their ideas out into the world. Work with Barbara to create a life that regenerates instead of depletes your soul. Our time here is limited. Stop waiting for “someday.” It’s time to Find Your Frolic today.
🌿Deepen Your Practice - A Prayer for Plants
Thank you for supporting my work. As part of an energetic exchange of gratitude, I am offering additional tidbits of green wisdom, eco-spiritual insight and a tiny dose of magic just for you. As with anything I offer, take what you like and leave the rest. This additional content is designed to help you deepen your spiritual practice, connect more deeply with the natural world around you and find magic in the mundane. Here we go!
I believe that all living beings have a spirit and an energy about them. They, like us, were created by God to live with us in relationship for the highest good of all. We are not separate from nature. We are of nature too.
This belief system has allowed me to see the world differently. Natural resources are not in endless supply for our use alone as humans. When we see the other beings we share this planet with as having value, we treat them differently at a macro level. On a micro level, our own lives are enriched with a bit more magic and mystery.
As you can tell from this post, I have learned to build a relationship with plants. I use pronouns when describing my more-than-human friends vs. using the word “it” because it helps build a relationship. I often name plants and trees. Sometimes a name comes to me like a whisper as it did with a special maple tree friend known to me as Jasper.
If you would like to deepen your relationship with your plants, start with observation. Take a moment to stop, be still and study them. Be fully present for this experience. Note the energy around them. Are they inviting your touch? Note their patterns, colors and smell. Do they have a name?
Spending time being fully present with your plants will help you build a relationship with them. By getting still and listening, you may hear a message from the deep, still voice within that knows things. Is this a message from the plant? Maybe. Is it a message from a higher power? Maybe. Does it really matter?
Recently, I came across a prayer for plants written by Arin Murphy-Hiscock that I really enjoyed. She suggests using this prayer whenever you bring a new plant into your home. I plan to use it or some variation whenever I water my plants. There is no such thing as too much blessing.
Spirits of Earth, Water, Fire and Air,
I ask your blessing on this water.
Endow it with strength, protection, and peace,
And may the plants that drink of it be similarly blessed.
Barbara, I love your meditation with your beloved plant, and your understanding of your (indeed our) fundamental personal relationship with all living things (as well as rocks and all else in nature which we may not identify as beings, e.g, ocean. You're amazing. And your writing is to engaging.......I can learn from you. BRAVA!!!!