Overwatering is widely recognized as one of the most common causes of houseplant death.
All projects in our lives are plants experiencing real, natural cycles.
Air, sun, water, and nutrients are required. Adequate space in the garden, too.
Most of all, we need patience.
The hardest thing for some of us to do is downshift.
I don’t need to keep checking on the plant.
Let it grow.
Night gardens
When standing in a museum, we can gaze at a painting. I have done this my whole life, thanks to my Mom’s work as a museum docent and art historian.
Mom is a master of pulling both her children and visitors into art via storytelling. She continues to use the classic three questions posed by museum docents to visitors called Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS):
What do you see?
What makes you say that?
What more can we find?
These questions are worthy of additional gaze.
When we peer down one of the streets leading to our home, we might ask ourselves what we see… palm trees, mototaxis, refresco fruit drinks, and people selling food on the street.
What makes me say that?
People, color, noise, chaos, and life.
Why?
Because of how it makes me feel.
What more could I find?
Today, I found a small printed newspaper talking about alien invasions available at the regular newsstand.
The incredible miracle of human existence is that there is always more we can find.
As I slice through the pool, my thoughts pass through a mental sieve. With each movement of my arms and shoulders, the mesh of the sieve grows finer, catching the essential nutrient-rich fruit to make my juice.
Compare this to the stagnant, solitary contemplation of sitting at a desk, attempting to decide without the benefit of cleansing, clarifying motion.
Why make deciding and thinking harder by sitting and being alone?
When movements and others offer the world both historical and new?
We are social creatures made more intelligent by engaging with others.
So, I ask again…consider the shortcomings of your unfiltered, solo musings.
Then consider what fellow swimmers might know.
Consider moving.
Consider asking.
