Another new week.

I am back in Kolkata and already missing the open space of my home.

Living in an apartment isn’t my thing, but I’ve been living in one for the past 6 years, ever since I had to move to the city for my work.

To make up for it, I became a little bit interested in home decor and even in plants.

I put up wallpapers in my bedroom and living room, and re-did my balcony.

It was a decent makeover, but it brought me joy.

I bought a green grass carpet, and slowly, I brought plant cuttings from home each time I visited and started to take care of plants to have at least some green space in my home and cheer up my mood.

At first, I did not know how to take care of plants, and earlier, many plants have died in my care, but I couldn’t live without some greenery, so I slowly took up the hobby of gardening.

Eventually, I realised that it isn’t as complicated as it looks.

You just have to give it water, sunshine, occasional trimming, occasional compost, know how to cut and replant, and it grows on its own.

Some plants are like some people: you don’t know what exactly they want.

But that’s fine too because the rest thrive on their own.

When I first began paying attention to plants, a few things struck me deeply.

This could be lessons from plants:

1. Their willingness to live

Each time I go home for a long holiday, especially during summer and puja holidays, I return to find my plants withered, drooping, and weak.

But even after a month, when I come back and quickly water them, they revive and stand tall again.

Rarely do they die completely.

Sometimes I think they are gone for good, but my mother always tells me to keep watering the pot anyway.

I feel like I’m watering a ghost plant, but then after a few weeks, you see their twigs appearing again, and lo, they are alive again!

Plants simply refuse to give up and die.

This makes me wonder about how nature is built on willpower and life.

So if a small plant can hold on to life like this, why should we as humans give up so easily?

2. Their Uniqueness

Looking at each shape and colour of plants and flowers makes you come into touch with the divine.

If you are a true plant lover, your plants will make you a better person.

They will make you patient, gentle and thoughtful.

I cannot tell you if I am a true gardener and plant lover, but my mother certainly is.

Ever since she started spending more time with plants, she has become like a plant queen.

She spends 2–3 hours every morning tending to plants, moving them from here and there, talking to them as though they were her other daughters and beaming with happiness.

Most mornings when I am at home, my mother asks me to see the new blooms and new leaves or buds unfolding.

She knows every plant, every stage they are in and pays attention to every new unfolding and withering.

Sometimes a plant dies because it was forgotten to be moved away from harsh sunlight, and she speaks of the plant as if it were a dog or a cat.

Just this morning, she told me that her Winsteria had finally bloomed and saw that she had put up a WhatsApp story.

In a small way, she asks me to pay attention, and when I do, a little wonder is struck.

And I’ve seen proof of what people say: plants respond to love and even get wounded.

I believe it’s true because one summer, when one of our helpers at home, Bishal Daju, was watering our plants and taking care of them while we were away, none of the flowers bloomed, and our garden looked dull.

He watered the plants just for the sake of watering because we told him to, but when my mother was back and she took charge of her plants and flowers again, the same garden felt alive and flowers bloomed like anything.

3. The cycle of death and renewal

Plants also make me wonder if our cycle of life and death could be the same.

When a plant dies, I cut a healthy stem from it and replant it.

That same plant, that leaf, that stem has died, but then a new twig, a new leaf grows.

You could say it’s the same plant that got reborn, but it’s also a new one altogether.

I often wonder if our life works the same way- coming alive, dying and then being re-rooted again and coming alive as long as the root is there.

4. How they teach you patience

You cannot ask a tree or a plant to grow quickly.

You have to wait. You have to be patient. It takes its own sweet time.

It’s unhurried. There is no impatience in them.

There is no competition. There is no anxiety about how they will turn out.

They just unfold and bloom in their own time.

Makes me think of the quote, “Nature never hurries, yet everything is accomplished”

Can we live and work in the same way, too?

But anyway, I don’t want to be too philosophical.

These were just some of my thoughts as I write about plants today.

But oh! I forgot to add one more thing-

Of their quiet Enlightenment

How they are filled with good vibrations and energy ~ being with them instantly uplifts one’s mood and makes us feel better.

They must be filled with so much goodness, wisdom and high life energy.

Makes me think again of how plants, and as a matter of fact, all of nature, are highly enlightened; otherwise, how could they make us feel so calm and at ease simply being in their presence?

You would have to be a highly enlightened being to make someone feel this way.

And all of nature has this capacity.

xx

And as for living in this apartment, I’ve been living in the same apartment since I first shifted, and even though I’ve already said I am not so fond of apartments, I do like mine.

Before getting this space, when we were first looking for a home to rent, my mother and I had prayed to get the best one- something which would be easy to travel to, close to my workplace and in a good locality and neighbourhood.

And it’s exactly so.

It’s a 2 BHK, and my landlord has been a wonderful one throughout.

She didn’t even raise the rent for the past 5 years, and only recently, when she did, she only increased 10%.

It’s 5 minutes from my college by rickshaw, 10 minutes walking to the local market, one auto away from the nearest metro and in a good, safe locality.

This is one little prayer that has been answered, too.

I don’t believe in the notion that just because you are living in a rented place, you won’t treat it as your home and deny yourself the comfort and pleasures.

Your home speaks your vibration and reflects your energy.

Also, your home has an energy of its own.

When I step into my home and my room, I want to feel at ease and calm.

So I always keep my home neat, tidy, spacious and airy.

(P.S How I always keep my room clean a tidy)​

In the morning, I open up my windows and let in fresh air and light. It immediately brightens my mood.

I brush my teeth and then make my bed.

A thing as simple as making your bed in the morning also makes a difference.

It also makes a difference to smile in front of the mirror as you put on your morning moisturiser and cream.

Combing and then tying up your hair and feeling tidy is another cherry on top.

Then I try to move gently from room to room to bring water from the kitchen, change water at my altar, light an incense and pray.

(More on how to have slow, unhurried mornings)

I don’t keep any maids, as is a common practice here.

I cook and clean myself, and even though house chores take much time and I get tired, I do enjoy the process too, and it’s a happy and satisfying kind of tired at the same time.

Especially after coming to learn of mindfulness and trying to practice it in little ways, little chores become all the more enjoyable, too.

Just yesterday, on my walk in the evening to get groceries, even though the roads were all muddy because of the rain, I still found myself enjoying my evening walk as I listened to music on my earphones.

Made me think how mindful walking makes you enjoy walking on muddy roads too.

One song came up when I was just about to reach my home, and because I wanted to listen to the entire song, I again walked an extra lane to make up for the song.

This afternoon, I enjoyed a little spaciousness in my day after cooking for my guests, sitting on my balcony full of plants and doing nothing but lying down and listening to music.

These are the ordinary moments that make up my day.

And must be the same for all of us.

You living your ordinary life, me living mine.

But let us pay attention to this ordinary world and be as involved in our lives as possible.

To quote Mary Oliver, whose poems I have been enjoying lately every night before going to bed, she says,

“Instructions for living a life:
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.”

I guess this is all I want to do for life.

And if you’ve read this far, I thank you for your patience and attention.

xx

P.S This was a part from my Mindful Monday Newsletter. To receive my newsletter directly to your inbox, subscribe below. It would be wonderful to have you ❤️

Journal Prompt of the Week

Spend a few minutes observing one ordinary thing in your daily life—a cup of tea, sunlight through a window, a leaf, or even a chore.

Write about it in detail: colours, textures, smells, sounds, feelings.

What hidden beauty or lesson can you find in that small moment?

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Blog Post of the Week

• ​How to Achieve a Healthy Work-Life Balance​
• ​Digital Discipline: Why It Matters and How to Practice it​

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Quote of the Week

One from Others

The quality of life is in proportion, always, to the capacity for delight. The capacity for delight is the gift of paying attention.

— Julia Cameron

One from me

A life well loved is a life well lived.

Past Newsletters you might like:

• On the Ordinary Things that Aren’t Ordinary at all
• Ichigo Ichie and Other Stories from the Week
• Quiet Acts of Grace and the way things inter-are
• On Kind Proofs that we have lived