mulberryshoots

As some of you readers know, I’m fond of maidenhair fern plants and have had them around for decades, their well-being reflecting my own, it seems. Like me, they are high maintenance, requiring constant tending (watering, misting, etc.) On the other hand, hopefully also like me, they are worth it!

The last days of summer hadn’t been that great for me and the maidenhair fern reflected that reality–it was crammed into a corner, brown bits and hazy yellowing parts all over it. I even thought a couple of times about getting rid of it, not having to tend it, nor having this kind of barometer of myself around anymore. But today, on a cool and sunny Fall day, with the full moon ready to shine forth tonight, I moved the bedraggled thing and put it on a marble pedestal stand in the middle of the room. I brought along a brown paper bag, a pair of scissors and sat in a chair cutting out all the frayed parts.

I was surprised to see that it wasn’t as bad as I thought, once I removed all the dried up parts and the yellowed leaves, I gently lifted up the fronds, untangling them as I went along until none were weighted down by any others that might have been overlapping them. This action seemed to give the plant a huge sigh of relief, now free to stretch its limbs with a huge yawn. I laughed out loud at this image as I moved the Meyer lemon tree into the window where the fern had been. The orchid plants were also trimmed and cleaned up on the shelf in back of the fern. I shifted the stand a little to the left after opening up the windows to the fresh air. Everyone felt better, I thought–or everything, that is.

It always amuses me when these simple acts seem to mirror my self. There’s more space in my head as well as in our schedule, now that the Fall season has begun. Most of all, I think it’s being aware of using that space when I think about things I think I have to do, but don’t really need to. Nor, to have things a certain way, just because. More breathing room allows one to take deeper breaths. More oxygen.

That’s a good thing for plants, and for women too!