You're going to be OK

I talk to my plants.  Not long conversations or anything but I often tell them, when I've subjected them to some sort of trauma or another, "You're going to be OK."

My basil plant that lives in my kitchen window was just starting to recover from the grief I put it through by going to New England for a week.  The leaves were starting to get darker green and fuller.  "You're going to be OK," I told it when I could see it starting to revive.

When we went to Washington, I moved it and some other plants to outside locations where they would get watered every night by the automatic sprinklers.  It sort of worked.  The basil is looking pretty rough again.  Lots of leaves turned brown.  I moved it back inside and trimmed away some of the brown leaves and left some of them because I didn't want to completely strip the little guy.  I gave it a good long drink.

"You're going to be OK."

I checked on Bethany, who is my hydrangea.  She's beautiful but I noticed she's struggling.  The drip hose fell out of the big barrel she calls home.  I put it back in and gave her an extra drink.  "You're going to be OK," I told her.

Walking in the front door, I noticed a spider plant I've probably had for ten years.  It was thriving and doing fine but really outgrowing its pot.  I took it outside and sure enough, it was completely root bound.  I cut the roots in half and divided it into two pots.  I carefully filled up dirt around the two smaller plants.  If plants could talk, I'd assume they wouldn't be too happy with me.  I was watering the smaller one, the one in the new pot.  "You're going to be OK."

My life has been changed.  Uprooted.  I felt like I was thriving, maybe I was root bound?  I don't know.  My life in a new state, no more home schooling, a soon to be missionary son, far away friends, it hardly resembles the life I used to have.

Sometimes when my leaves feel battered, I'm in a new unfamiliar pot of earth, and I'm not sure what just happened, I imagine a loving Heavenly Father looking down on me.

Have some water.  Relax.  This is good new dirt.  You're going to be OK.