I started this post with one thing in mind – character development – but it evolved on its own into something else. I am alluding to gardening, but not the kind that deals with soil and seeds. When you decide to have a garden, you have to pick the seeds or plants and know or learn how to maintain them.

I remember hearing once that when a person gives you flowers or a plant, it will react to the intentions of the giver. I’ll give you two personal instances. (1) A coworker had given me a cactus plant that died for what I thought was no reason. I know I don’t have a green thumb, but a cactus? (2) I had received a basket of multiple plants from a former boyfriend. It contained a spider plant, a devil’s ivy plant, and a rubber tree. The spider plant had to be put into bigger and bigger pots because it grew so much; the devil’s ivy grew all the way across my floor and would have continued; and the rubber tree was replanted but was killed by my daughter’s rabbit (I guess the leaves were delicious).

I know for a fact that I don’t have a green thumb, but those two plants had to be given away because I was no longer able to care for them properly. What a difference, though, between the cactus and that basket of life. By the way, some flowers my baby sister gave me just a week ago are still thriving in spite of my not-green thumb.

What has this got to do with gardening, you ask? Well, it has more to do with the first part – picking the seeds. Sometimes you yourself go to the garden shop and pick them out, but sometimes they come in the form of a gift. What you believe you are receiving as something given with good intentions or love may not be. But you should pay attention if that plant withers or never grows.

I guess the second part’s obvious. When you realize you’ve picked the wrong seeds or that the gift was really no gift, you either keep trying to sow or move on to another project.