If Growth Could Be Measured

January 30, 2024

​Beloved: 
          My condo home is cozy, but without the streaming sunlight needed for these houseplants I keep adopting; so this winter I hung some grow lights* and am watching the magic as it happens.  When I add a humidifier to the treatment, my plants plump and shine, practically shivering in the pleasure of it all.  The prayer plant (maranta leuconeura) has not only stretched and added leaves, a whole new shoot has come up in another area of the pot.  The limpy Christmas cactus starts I potted in the fall are suddenly dark green, thick and smooth.  Any day I expect to see them standing at attention in their yogurt cup.  I’d all but killed my maidenhair fern (adiantum pedantum) and she is nearly back to her sweet swaying self.

          A pink-gold glow now permeates my living room and study where I spend most of my time, leaving me to wonder, am I also growing?  Are my limbs about to plump and shine?  Will my own limpy spirit find new strength and life?  For $8 a pop, that’s a far better deal than healthy houseplants, don’t you know!  I expect someone will email me about the lamps designed to help humans feel less depressed in winter, a brilliant invention – Florida in a lightbulb!  My own plants’ happiness works much the same on me.  Their joy makes me joyful.  I feel part of something bigger, older, wiser and more mysterious just by turning on their lights and mist, by mixing up their fertilizer – science that still can’t explain the original why of life, why creation is here for our participation and joy in the smallest of proofs.

          If my own growth could be measured, I doubt there’d be much change through these short gray days of winter.  But I am most definitely sustained, in no small part by fussing over a few frivolous plants.  Along with a grandgirl, three kids, their partners, a congregation and a dog, I have a community in which to practice and participate in the ever-living mystery of creation, in real time.  A life that matters, enormously, which I am grateful not to miss.

*Grow Lights ~ I bought these locally, cheaper than any I found online.  8 lights for $65. Easily installed.