Pottering

Everybody knows that plants talk. With a bit of experience we can look at a plant and see that its telling us exactly what it wants done: “Look at my leaves, they are covered in dust! How can you expect me to photosynthesise?” the rubber plant yells. We get the duster out.

It doesn’t always seem so easy when it comes to identifying what we ourselves need to make us feel whole and happy; Yet really it’s not so difficult because our psyche, just like the rubber plant, tells us exactly what it wants. It’s just that we’ve got into the habit of ignoring it so eventually our psyche’s yell gets subdued into a whisper or it goes quiet altogether. It hasn’t died. It just recognizes that its winter and there is no growing to be done so its withdrawn.

Bringing a silent psyche out of hibernation is a slow and gentle process. No use whacking it out in full sunlight and demanding to know what it needs because it probably won’t trust us enough to tell us. The longer we have been ignoring it, the longer its going to take for it to trust us again, so we need to arm ourselves with patience.

Pottering is a great way to get back in touch with a silent psyche. Mundane tasks allow our brain to wander. While we sweep the leaves on the path, we find ourselves planning how to expand the veg patch. Suddenly we are musing about growing exotic chillies rather than the same old potatoes and cabbages. That’s the kind message from within we have to be alert for. We’ve got a yearning to grow something different but we are afraid we can’t afford the seeds. If we find a way to get those seeds without breaking the bank, our psyche will get the first indication that there is someone out there listening and it may speak a little louder next time.

So next time your cheese plant asks for a quiet word, you know what to do…