I am a house plant

I am a house plant.

I love plants. Always have. I especially like rescuing a plant and bringing it back to life. There’s something so satisfying about discovering exactly how to tend to it, what kind of light it will respond to, how much water it needs. Then watching it as it rebounds and begins to thrive.  

My current rescue is a rubber tree plant. She was stuck in the lobby of our building in a spot that didn’t have enough light, under the care of someone who didn’t understand how to speak Rubber Tree. So I brought her up to our apartment and have been tending to her for about a year now. She’s happy. She’s thriving. I feel good every time I look at her. I give her consistent care. And it’s that consistency that allows her to thrive. She couldn’t do it without a caretaker. I am happy to be hers. 

It wasn’t always this way for me. In the beginning, I used to rescue a plant, bring it back to life only to neglect it until it teetered close to death then I’d swoop in and rescue it again. It was the rescuing I liked. Anything more than that, the longterm nurturing and cultivating was less interesting to me. Tedious even.  

It was Munchausen by proxy only with plants. Yikes. I guess I had a dysfunctional desire to be needed or something like that.  

As my life unfolded, I became hip to my semi-sadistic plant pattern. And to the great delight of all the potted plants in and around Austin, armed with this new awareness I determined to change my sad plant ways. 

Things evolved for me. Eventually my need was no longer to rescue — yes, I still loved to perform that service — but what became important, even spiritual to me was to help these plants come back to life and then to live long, healthy lives which could only happen with care and attention delivered consistently.  

I have always struggled with consistency. And not just in plant care. 

In fact, I’ve found the same swoop-in-and-rescue-only-to-neglect-and-rescue-again pattern show up in other parts of my living. Let me tell you it was not a fun day when I began to realize that, good Lord, I was kinda doing this all over the place!  

Yup.  

I found traces of this less than desirable approach to plant-care in how I treated my relationships, my physical health, my finances, and with my spiritual and mental well-being.  

Basically, I was treating me and my life like I used to treat those poor plants!  

Rescue.  

Repair 

Neglect.  

Repeat. 

They say awareness is the first step to change. What they don’t say is that awareness can also be a first step to disgust and disappointment (look away! look away!). 

I really didn’t want this to be a whole-life pattern. Geeze. But there it was, clear as day. Turns out the only place I was being consistent was in the way I was dipping in and out of most of the major areas of my life. When things are off the rails, I'd swoop in, do some work then abandon it until it got bad enough that I'd get to put my cape back on and come in and save the day again! 

I do love a good cape.  

But here’s the deal.  

Back in the day, all that rescuing of plants taught me a shit-ton about what it takes to cultivate thriving flora. I simply needed to add the one missing ingredient: consistency. I had already shown that with consistency added I could maintain all the good results I was achieving with my plant friends. Furthermore, consistent care had become really satisfying.  

And if it’s true plants, then it can be said that the same thing is true for the health of my relationships, my body, my finances as well as my mental wellbeing and my spiritual life. 

When I step back and really consider it, I’ve learned a lot from my years at The School of Neglect. I’ve earned a freakin’ PhD in what makes things healthy and what makes them unhealthy. I know what makes my relationships thrive. I know what keeps my body healthy. I understand what gets my finances to stabilize and grow. And I know what keeps me spiritually flourishing and mentally grounded.  

So dear friends, I say this to you:  

I hereby relinquish my need to rescue and instead don the cape of consistency. In all things important, I vow to apply consistency. The rest I already know how to do. I will allow the lessons I’ve learned from my relationships with my plant brethren to take hold in how I tend to myself and my life. 

How ‘bout you? Where in your life is consistency the only missing ingredient? How might your life flourish if the consistent application of your best actions became your default?  

I’d love to know!  

Ok, love bugs…get out there and do what you do best and I’ll talk to you on the flip-side.  

xoxo JohnnyD  

Photo credit: Photo by Katya Austin