From Out of the Darkness...

As I've never lived anywhere (in my adult life) where I could own a pet (and frankly, my lifestyle of travel wouldn't be a good situation for any animal), the only item I've had over the years for which I've been primary caregiver is a little shamrock plant I've had since college. Well...the truth is I've had other plants, but none that were able to give me the feedback I needed to properly care for them; consequently, many didn't last a semester. My shamrock, on the other hand, stood proudly when it was being taken care of and wilted or didn't open its little leaves when it needed water. Pretty cool.

Since I was traveling a lot over this past summer, I left my little shamrock with Mom to babysit. (This plant came from a bulb of my Mom's shamrock plant, so it's cute to think of it going home to sit beside 'mama' for the summer.)

It must have succumbed to separation anxiety, because not long after I retrieved it from my parents the last of the shamrocks fell of, leaving me with a vacant pot of dirt. I was a bit taken back by how much this affected me; I'd had the plant so long that I really hated that I'd let it die. Seriously, I spent many a minute reflecting on the permanent nature of my little mistakes in not taking care of it--neglecting to check if it needed water and leaving it in a very exposed, sunny spot on my desk. If it's possible to mourn the loss of something so small, I don't think I'm exaggerating in saying I mourned--both my actions and the consequences that this little guy suffered as a result.

I placed the empty pot on a shelf under my desk behind some books and figured someday I'd find something else to plant in it. But a few weeks later, as I was looking under my table for a book, I noticed something that made me grin from ear to ear....

Two little sprigs were poking their heads out from behind my books, leaning up to the window to get some sun! Here's what it looked like when I pulled the pot from its premature grave and set it in a place of honor in the precious few square inches of desk space I have.


Barrett must have thought I was going crazy, because I got really excited. The spiritual analogies were not lost on me: mourning and burying a loved one--regretful of decisions that contributed to his death--and the subsequent joy of realizing that there is life where there had once been no hope of life. This may seem silly to you, but I really think I got a glimpse of the real hope that resurrection brings with it.

I'm happy to report that my little guy is doing very well--I found a better spot on my desk that allows it to hide from the most severe sun during the hot parts of the day and peek around the window to get sun when it needs it. I've also assigned a special shot glass for watering it, making sure I give it exactly 1 oz of water every few days. Here's what it looked like a few weeks ago.