A year ago this weekend our little dog Ziggy had her litter of 3 puppies. When I was re arranging rooms to make space for the whelping box and 'puppy run' I had to move a rather large plant.
It's a fiddle leaf fig which I'd bought on Columbia Road flower market several years ago and had grown from about 2 foot high to nearly 6 foot. I was training it to become a tree shape by carefully removing leaves from the main stem and a process called 'notching' to cut into the stem to encourage new branches to grow.
When I moved the plant into another room I managed to knock it and devastatingly, decapitated the whole top section! To say I was gutted is an under statement. I actually cried a few tears over my fiddle leaf fig.
The following day I decided to give it a chance before chucking it in the green bin. I made a clean cut to the break and continued to feed and water. It was a rather sad looking stick of a trunk with one solitary fiddle shaped leaf, left at the top. (See below left).
After a few weeks I was astonished to see new growth starting to appear. Tiny new green leaves pushing through the brown bark. I was totally thrilled!
A year on it is another plant. (See first photo). Healthy and lush and as the growing season has started again another 6 leaves have already emerged this week!
We can learn so much from nature can't we? I'm constantly inspired on a daily basis on my walks around the woods. But there is a lesson in this story I think we can all learn from too. In the words of the poet Rupi Kaur. 'people too must wilt, fall, root, rise in order to bloom'.
Sometimes life's circumstances can knock us off centre. Even cut us dead in our tracks. But having a 'little' bit of courage, grit, not giving up, or whatever you want to call it can often bring out a better, different version. Like my beautiful fiddle leaf fig.
I've moved it again (very carefully) as it needs even more space to grow.
Namaste
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