The cactus, well, I just left that one alone. Cactuses thrives with little water and plenty of heat. So this summer, I am seeing what I assume is signs of vitality and joy. Spikes have grown all over the cactus as have a white, cottony, substance on the top. That one is doing well.
The succulent is growing like crazy. I water it once a week. Turn it occasionally so each side gets plenty of sun and, as Elsa would tells us. . . I let it go. This one started close to four inches high and now it is about a foot tall. As I look at it I think, 'yeah I can do this.'
The aloe plant in my coffee cup also is doing fine. Five mini stalks are growing and I will need to do something about that. It is getting too big for the cup. We put this in a cup without repotting it so the water can drip through the soil and not get overwatered and the evaporate back into the soil--I think. JonMark said something about this being a special way to help to grow and not take on too much water.
But the orange marmalade. That poor plant. Today I went to check on it, and, well now I have an empty pot to work with. The plant completely broke free from its root system and died. Truth be told I was wondering what I was doing wrong with this one for some time. I never saw a flower bloom which is why I bought it in the first place. So now I need to move the aloe into the former home of the marmalade. It needs more space to grow anyway.
Truth be told though I have too much to do today!
I am too busy to take the two pots to the kitchen counter and perform the task of repotting a plant. While I know it will only take five minutes at the most, I am just too busy. Maybe I will call Emma and ask her to do it?
While you may not have had the same struggles that I am having with plants today, I bet you are familiar with the mindset--too busy for a five minute task. Maybe even too busy to spend a little extra time with the Lord.
In her book Sabbath in the Suburbs, I remembered the words of MaryAnn McKibben Dana where she wrote something to my heart as I kept looking at the pots on my window sill throughout this morning:
"I didn't want to live the kind of life in which an extra four minutes were so crucial to my schedule that I would petition the county government to get my way. . . [But] I, too, treated time as a sacred commodity to be hoarded. It was a constant struggle to keep from gripping tightly to every four-minute nugget of time, maximizing every moment, multitasking as if my life depended on it."
I wonder if today, you can locate those extra four minutes... maybe five. Give them over to the Lord and notice how differently your day will become. I bet you will be surprised.
Oh, as for the fifth plant. The African violet is fine... I think. It is still just a leaf that I water and wait, but I hear those plants are often tough to deal with. But I will be patient and watchful.
