Sometimes healing or happiness doesn’t arrive as one giant cinematic moment. Sometimes it arrives as:
-moving to a sunnier-feeling space,
-learning where the morning and afternoon light falls,
-neighbors offering patio chairs, FREE
-chatting to neighbors while they’re walking their dogs past while you’re sitting on your patio, kids running by and waving, joy on their little faces, laughter filling the air, or riding their bikes past
-protecting a beloved hostas from snail invasions, (the little critters have been really enjoying my poor plant-“rehoused” 3 off it this morning 🤨😳🫤
-getting dirt under your nails as you fill your planters and pots with color and life-softly humming to your new leafy friends
-meeting “watering buddies” willing to exchange watering care of plants when the other is out of town
-Walking barefoot in the grass outside your patio doors
-creating a “birdie haven” with food and water-the bees and butterflies also enjoying
-sitting outside in the evening feeling connected instead of isolated.
Those things sound small individually, but together they create a sense of BELONGING . A lived-in life.
Creating my patio biome-hummingbirds investigating the fuchsia and feeder area,
bees working the lavender and butterfly bush, songbirds using the bath even more than the feeder,
my patio becoming a little “pause point” in the neighborhood ecosystem. peace-
Does anyone else admit to talking to plants? I admittedly do-even sing to them-A lot more gardeners do than admit it.
Not because the plant understands words the way humans do, but because attention changes care:
you notice subtle changes sooner,
watering becomes more intuitive,
you interact more consistently,
you become attuned to light, soil, growth, stress.
Plants (like ANY LIVING THING) also genuinely respond to environment and touch in measurable ways — light direction, vibration, airflow, handling, pruning. So while they’re not “listening” exactly, your relationship with them absolutely affects how they grow.
There’s also something grounding in working with plants-(pun intended 😉🥰😄) -they return my care and I am filled with gentle peace, the joy of vibrant color and lush foliage, gratitude, symbiotic exchange-“learning their names” (in truth I name them but it kinda comes to me what they want to be called) instead of seeing them as decoration. It turns gardening into relationship rather than ownership.
And judging by my hostas, and the WILD GROWTH of my other plants, they seem pretty content with the arrangement. 🌿 in light✨-Denise
Just Life With Denise 