The pruning process

Prune your own roots yourself, so life doesn’t have to do it for you…

After today’s session of houseplant care, I can officially and confidently announce that I am indeed a plant mom. I mean, that feels obvious given the houseplants I tend to biweekly and fuss over almost every day, but it’s not until you’ve really had to encounter a challenge with your plants that you really feel it. But, I guess there were some hints along the way that I might truly be a plant mom. Like the knowing when my plants need water by just looking at the way a leaf has drooped even a millimeter, or the knowing they need some vitamins or new soil. But you know your plants genuinely feel at home when they start teaching you lessons.

My plants whisper beautiful reminders to me almost daily. Their beauty reminds me of my own. Their determination to thrive mirror that of my own. The way they might droop a bit but still manage to hold their heads high despite an unfavorable circumstance I might create for them. Or the way they teach me of my own patience as they allow me to mess up over and over again yet still thrive. They teach me of the watering my own life deserves and how important it is to not miss a moment of self-care.

So we vibe in here and I can appreciate the complexity that goes into taking care of them, and me.

But for the last few weeks, okay maybe months, I’ve known that two of my plants needed to be repotted. I can just see they aren’t at their full potential. Almost like, they are still beautiful but why haven’t they grown?

I realized that no amount of water or sunlight could change the fact that I needed to change their environment. They quite simply need a bigger space that was more suitable for what they’ve become since I brought them home. They’ve changed but I haven’t changed their environment to keep up with them.

Ahh, and just like that, they imparted their wisdom onto me. Gently speaking the words to me I needed to hear. Words I knew, but seeing the visual shifted its priority in my life. And It’s not just a lesson for my plant care, it was a lesson for me.

So with my to-do list piled high to the sky and my anxious thoughts roaming free, I decided this morning was the perfect opportunity to ignore it all and focus on my plants. To find some therapy in my tiny bit of nature.

I made my iced matcha, grabbed my gardening gloves and turned on Stevie Wonder’s ‘Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants’. Because ever since Tia Williams wrote in her book ‘A Love Song for Ricki Wilde’ that Ricki played this album for her plants, I can’t unsee it and my plants deserve that kind of love and dedication too.

So I begin, lightly tugging at Hope (my plant) so I can remove her from the smaller potter and get her ready for her new home. But she wouldn’t budge. After a few attempts, I turned the potter over only to realize that her roots had grown onto the underside of the potter and was essentially trapped. I grab some garden shears and start cutting her out of the plastic potter she lived in. Once she was out I was left with more roots than I understood what to do with.  So I did like any millennial would and I ran to YouTube for some answers.

I discovered that she is root bound. Like WTH! But of course she is, because I knew what needed to happen months ago but never prioritized her wellbeing. Root bound means that the plant was outgrowing the space it was in and the roots became so tightly jammed together and tangled that they no longer could grow. The roots begin to wrap around the plant and stifle it.  Eventually the plant will die.

So as I sat there reading some more and looking at my plant, she began whispering to me again. Ever so gently. “Prune your own roots yourself, so life doesn’t have to do it for you”.

The lessons don’t end around here so I thought it important to share here with you.

Imagine you are this vibrant being. That you are so full of life and with so much purpose that is ready to pour out of you but as you continue to grow and shift as you naturally would, you don’t allow your environments to grow and shift with you. So now you’re in rooms and you notice your gifts are not valued the way they should be, your voice is a lot more muffled than it used to be and your purpose no longer has a place. But imagine you notice that it’s not you, it’s where you’ve planted yourself but you refuse to leave. Because life. And loyalties. And comforts. And ease of the familiar. So you think, my roots are here so how can I leave them behind. And eventually you stop growing. You start fusing with the people, places and things that are no loner nourishing to your spirit. The same way my plant began fusing with the potter.

Today I learned that roots can be pruned. & very specifically the articles and YouTube videos stated that it doesn’t have to be a gentle process. That the roots can handle a lot more than we think and they would generally be okay to cut of that excess that originally had nowhere to go. It gives the healthy root that is intact an opportunity to start over. The shock that ran through my body as I realized the dual lesson for both me and Hope happening on this random Monday.

You are the healthy root. All that extra circling root that has grown and attempting to stifle you must be pruned.

Sometimes it’s not that we’re incapable of thriving, it’s that our environments don’t create enough room for our roots to expand. In the wrong environments, our roots can’t take in the adequate nutrients for that expansion. So they stop attempting to find room and eventually our goals die, our ambitions die, our zeal for life is gone.

You are a living, breathing being just as my plant is. The wrong environments can and will stifle you. It won’t reflect your truest potential back to you. You’ll start walking around thinking you have nothing more to offer the world when in actuality you just needed more room to receive and more room to grow into who you intended to be when you got here.

So now imagine you choose to embrace change. To honor the ebb & flow of life. To remember how dynamic you are and resist the temptation to remain static. To practice non-attachment and remove yourself from spaces and places that no longer fit the person you are becoming. Imagine you seek spaces and places you have room to continue growing into. Spaces and places that reflect and revere the beauty of who you are desiring to be. Imagine you weren’t afraid to prune your roots as often as needed so you could continue reaching your highest potential? Imagine you recognized the signs long before any roots even needed to be pruned?

I don’t know about you, but today just gave me a whole new perspective. I pray you trust the pruning process and give yourself the room you need to expand into the version of you that is calling.