gardening
spring of 2024, Michelle from ibb gifted me an orchid. I was going through a tough period in my life, and this gift felt like a special encouragement, so I decided to take really good care of him. I watered him biweekly as one should with orchids, and he blossomed beautifully at my work desk. I even gave him a name: CJ.
but one day CJ stopped growing. he stopped blooming and I felt defeated; I couldn’t even take care of a simple plant! I repotted him, took him home so that he could see some real sunshine, and continued to water him. but little CJ remained stagnant and barren.
fast forward a few months to today, I decided to make some coffee and stopped by Michelle’s office. I explained to her how CJ stopped growing and asked if there was anything I could do to make him grow.
“oh he’s supposed to do that! but he’ll grow back in time.”
“how much time?!” I asked, pleasantly surprised that I hadn’t killed the precious plant she gifted me.
“about 6 months or so! just take care of him like you normally do and he’ll be back around January.”
I sighed a sigh of relief and she must’ve seen it, because she smiled at me and said, “that’s why they call gardening the optimism for the future!”
and that made my heart really happy for some reason. because I’ve felt a bit stunted and dull ever since CJ stopped growing. I felt like I was doing something wrong and put all of the blame on me. but sometimes life has seasons, seasons of growth and seasons of hibernation; seasons of love, and seasons of regret; seasons of cold, and seasons of warmth. and the beauty in all of this is that one begets the beauty of the other.
so from today on, i’ve decided that gardening is for me, and so is optimism for the future.
-gardener juju
