Brown Thumb Confessions

I want desperately to be a green-thumbed person.  My spiritual worldview is largely centered around connectedness to nature.  The knowledge that I tend to kill plants makes me feel like some kind of unnatural menace.  When someone gives me a plant as a gift, I smile but I’m thinking “No!  For the love of God, don’t leave that defenseless living being with me!”  I tell the story of the nice plant that I took with me to college.  It spent the semester dying and then was brought back to life during the breaks when I brought it home where my mother took care of it.  Ironically, I can seem psychic when around my cats, but I’m completely out of sync with plants.

Stories about gardening as a spiritual practice make me determined to give it another try.  I plan to put plants around our new house.  Not only do I want the pleasure of seeing them, but I know they are good for indoor air quality.  I want to have plants around our deck that will attract butterflies and hummingbirds.  Perhaps I will start with one indoor plant and try to work up from there.  Now that I live near my mother, I will have her visit from time to time to check on the poor little things.  Meanwhile I will try to focus on the spiritual practice aspect of garden with hope that in the process I will find myself transformed (or turned slightly greenish in hue).  As Terry Hershey would say, I will open my heart to the rhythms of the garden.

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