Everyone knows Aloe-vera. A useful succulent, it is extensively used in skin care, cosmetics and natural medicine for the medicinal and healing property of its thick juicy stems.
In my life, the aloe vera came as a great healing of my soul and let me to discover a piece of me that I never thought existed.
Around 2016, when I was recovering from a personal setback, I had gone home for a visit and spent some time in our garden. My father is a very passionate gardener and we have a sprawling garden.
My experiences so far with gardening has been disastrous. I had managed to kill almost every single flower plants I had bought and my parents on a visit to me, requested that I stop murdering innocent plants.
I was quite sure, that this piece of green thingie is also going to end up in rubbish bin soon enough, I had not counted on its resilience.
I had planted the aloe stem in a small pot, watered it a bit and all but forgot about it. Imagine my surprise, when I saw after a month that it seemed to have taken root. I watered it a little bit and forgot all about it again.
Another few months passed. On one grey Autumn evening, I realised that the plant has not only taken root, have thrived and even grown. I used to water it on and off. Inspired by it, I bought another delicate flower plant. Predictably, it died within a month.
I gave up on plants for a while and don’t remember if I really took care of my alove vera that much. So when in 2017, a few days before my birthday, I found out it has still survived and grown and is actually showing every sign of propagating, it was nothing short of personal high for me.
If my barely there care can still make a green plant survive and thrive and grow, maybe there was hope for me in gardening. I went out and promptly bought my next plant, a green indoor plant. I would stay away from flowers for a while.
My gardening hobby low key started from that time. This was two years back. I wish I had taken better care of my first plant, because it would have grown even bigger. What I have now, I cannot much complain though. I use the aloe extensively to treat pimples and skin issues and use it to massage my headache. Still it has managed to survive all this and grow even more.
It had given me hope of doing something, creating something which I would be proud of and I am becoming an increasingly skilled gardener. This year, in 2019, I have started my own vegetable garden. I have a steady source of salad and strawberries from my garden itself. Whenever I have stress from other areas of work, I can draw comfort from the fact that I have a source where I can focus and destress and recharge my energy. Since then, there has been immense personal growth in my life, professional growth too because being successful at this small thing gave me the confidence to take charge of many things, express my opinion and be more responsible at work in general.
All this has been possible, because one small stem of one small plant, gave me hope and assurance when I was deeply in doubt of myself.
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