I didn’t grow up in a super fancy or rich family. I’m now an elder millennial and my parents house was filled with typical boomer-baby things. But the one thing that did make our house a bit different was my mother’s loves of plants. I think it stems back to my grandmother honestly, she always had a garden outside and plant inside. I can remember playing Lego on her Ficus tree as a kid.
So, growing up in our house there were plants in just about every room, granted we lived on a hill, so we had really good light. But from my parent’s room to our living room, there was always something green around. We had a garden outside too, with two big olive trees sitting just above it. I grew up getting my hands dirty and seeing the effort required to grow and nurture something for years.
Nowadays I always, and I mean always have some dirt around. Thankfully, it’s getting to be time in the year to put the outside plants out and I’m so happy. But I had a brief moment of panic the other day when I needed to re-plant some cat grass for my kitty and I wasn’t sure if I had enough dirt. Spoiler, I did of course. A half-opened bag of dirt from two years ago that was still sitting on my balcony.
So back to plants, it’s really the first thing I notice about a living space. Is there sun? Air? Green things? It’s not a judgement thing, because I know that it takes a certain level of privilege to have the time/money to have plants in your home. But when I don’t see any?? I had a friend for a bit who was either extremely wealthy herself or her husband was. Or it was a mix of the two. And they had a house and tore it down to re-build one just outside of mid-town. She designed it all herself, which was an undertaking, I’m sure. But once it was built and they were all moved in, there was not one bit of green living thing in the entire bazillion square foot home. And to make matters worse, in their bedroom, which was on the second floor, they had a small balcony with a gorgeous view overlooking the creek that ran through their backyard and guess what? They kept the blinds down all the time!
I was sad in that space, yes it was grand. Yes it had all the elements you would expect in a multi-multi million-dollar home (can anyone say elevator??) but with no greenness or fresh air it felt still and stagnant. It felt like I couldn’t breathe.
So while I’ll probably never live in a home like that, I will always have some plants around me. I will always get my hands dirty and attempt to grow and cherish other living things just for the sheer pleasure it.
