After my parents died,
I started to propagate jade in our living room window.
I think it started with all of the flowers that I would start noticing when they died.
And I was in shock for months,
But somewhere in this timeframe of those five months that I was in shock,
I had started to look at these two tiny planters that I had,
And they had each just one piece of jade in dirt.
I had had them for years,
But they had never grown.
I had always watered them,
But I had never really taken care of them.
And I began to nurture these two jade plants that were given to my children when they were younger.
I began to really love them.
I would talk to them.
I would water them.
I would place them in different areas of my house to see where they would grow the most.
And slowly but surely,
Those two little singular pieces of jade became this whole garden on a table in our living room.
And now everyone walks past it every day.
The living room is where all of us gather.
And whenever I have us all in the living room,
And I look over at those jade plants,
I think,
Wow,
I did that.
I didn't even know I was doing it.
I just kind of walked my way into it unknowingly,
Really.
I didn't decide to have a jade garden.
In a way,
I got a little bit obsessed about it.
I really needed to take care of something,
And I took care of these tiny little jade pieces.
And I really know nothing about gardening,
So I just would follow my instincts.
And right now I have seven huge pots.
So they started on these small little pots,
Maybe two inches.
And now they're in 12-inch,
18-inch pots,
And they are flourishing.
And it's so beautiful.
And it fills our window.
It fills the area that we spent with my parents.
So this one or two cuttings of jade have become these huge plants that are flourishing.
I suppose I just needed to tend to something that was living.
And every day I look at it,
And something in those pots with that jade warms my heart.
Something about seeing them in the sunlight,
Through the window,
Seeing how they lean into one another,
Seeing how they continue to grow four and a half years later,
How I'm still taking care of them.
I really think maybe jade might have been the first thing I ever was able to really grow in my house.
It's so calming and so steadying.
And what's happened over the years,
Because my children have watched me propagate these jade plants,
And I've gotten more meaningful and intentional pots to put them in,
Is when they find things out and about in the world,
They'll put one in the pot.
So all the pots have stones or feathers they found,
Or a piece of artwork,
And they're all kind of within the pots on the table in the window.
And it's become kind of like a family collage of life.
You know,
Sometimes tending to something that is alive is how we survive through what has died.
And sometimes we do it without realizing it.
Our body just takes us on that path.
And now there's this beautiful reminder every time I'm in my living room of what I was able to create out of that loss.
And it doesn't measure up in the same way,
But it does remind me that I didn't lose everything.
So what are you nurturing and tending to in your life?
And maybe,
What are you nurturing and tending to that you're not even intentionally doing?
And what garden will it be for you one day?
