“Gratitude is the fairest blossom

which springs from the soul.”

~Henry Ward Beecher

  Somehow most people tend to associate the emotion of gratitude more with humans, than with plants and animals.

However, I know for sure, that they feel it too. It is just that they express it differently.

A couple of years ago while returning home, I happened to notice a small plant in a broken pot, obviously abandoned, lying on the side of the road. I felt really sorry for it. I thought it deserved better.

The second time we went that way,it looked so helpless, I felt  sorrier for it and myself because I could not do anything for it.Other than a small balcony at home, already crowded with four pots, there was really no place for another one. 

The next time I saw it,I noticed that it looked shrivelled and on its way out.At that point, the desire to reach out and rescue it, far outweighed all practical considerations.

We had no clue what it was until a neighbour told me its name and also the fact, as known at that time, that it flowered once in a blue moon and usually there would be a single flower.

Anyway, having rescued it, we re potted it and made room for it in the already crowded balcony.

It responded beautifully to the nurturance and soon had to be transferred to a bigger pot.

Feeling like knights rescuing plants in distress, we continued to watch with awe, as it grew and grew and grew. It still continues to reach for the sky.

It turned out to be a ‘Brahma Kamala’ plant also known as ‘The Queen of the Night’.In the last two years it has blossomed almost half a dozen times, with several flowers at a time.

The flowers bloom in the night and are totally awesome! They have a rare,mild and very subtle fragrance we have never known before. By morning they wilt but still continue to look beautiful! We have never ever seen anything so incredibly exquisite . Last month there were two dozen flowers blooming almost at the same time.

I know the plant is as grateful to us, as I am to it. Not a single day goes by without me expressing my heartfelt gratitude to it and the other plants there as well.

It is time again to invest in something larger to house it for it has outgrown the largest of pots available.

It seems to have only one purpose, to grow and thrive and bless us with more and more flowers.To show us in its own unique way how grateful it is for our timely assistance.

I am thankful for its presence in my life and the lessons it has taught me about acceptance, resilience, gratitude. I am sure it is neither angry/bitter nor judgmental about those who had no second thoughts about abandoning it.

It is simply in the moment and only concerned with being all that it can be. It has been one of our greatest teachers and we continue to marvel in its magnificence.

 “No one is as capable of gratitude as one who has emerged from the kingdom of night.” ~Elie Wiesel

P.S:Thank you for making time to read about a unique plant that is an embodiment of the NEVER SAY DIE spirit.

Namaste

Bhagya