December 6, 2019 - 84 - "Keeping Our Feng Shui-ed "

Not the bamboo plant...but it's where the bamboo plant
lived before I decided we couldn't risk another
close encounter of the slimy kind.

     We used to have this 'lucky bamboo' plant.  We called it the 'lucky bamboo plant for two reasons:  

       1) That's what the packaging said     when we bought it., and

       2) It managed to stay alive in our house, which is saying a lot.

      Even silk plants struggle to survive at our house.  For some reason neither of us can ever keep the 'water the plants' chore on our radars for very long.  Especially not indoor ones.  (Sorry all you dead plants down through the years.  We always had the very best of intentions when we got you.)

     Luckily, (ha ha) the lucky bamboo plant was different.  We put it in a clear vase, filled the vase with small pebbles to keep the stalks upright, and we could see where the water level was at all times.  It took a really looooong time to get to where the plant had no water left to drink.  

     Since we had a big window of safety from 'it's a little low', to 'huh...it's getting close to the roots now', to '*Danger Zone!: This plant has zero water to drink and will die momentarily*, it gave us a lot of leeway.  


     Without fail, one of us would, eventually go fill it..usually just by dumping the rest of our personal glasses of water in the vase as we'd pass, thus buying the poor thing a little extra time to live.

    Anyway, the thing did really well for years and years.  Thrived would be a better word for it.  It was majestic.  (Gotta find a picture of this beauty to celebrate it's long and (mostly) happy life.)

---

     Years after getting it I noticed the leaves looked a little yellow and a couple of them were turning brown.  The water was a little cloudy.  I thought:  'I should change that water'.  

---

     But then Michael had a medical scare that put him in the hospital for eight days straight and scared the living daylights out of both of us.  As I'd go to the hospital every day I kept noticing the plant was getting worse.  The water was downright murky and something was growing in among the rocks.

      Since Michael was fighting an infection that seemed somehow like the one trying to hurt the plant, the sight of this plant really disturbed me.

       One night I came home dead tired, saw the plant and thought:  That's it.  I've got to get this cleaned up.  

       I put a strainer in the sink and carefully dumped the pebbles into it, washed the slime off of the roots until they were back to the original green without any of the the brown slime on them.  

     I scrubbed and re-scrubbed the rocks trying to get any last residue of algae off of them.  Then ran boiling water over the rocks and spread them out on a towel to dry completely.

     I cleaned out the vase and left the plant in a bucket of fresh water overnight.

     The next day, after rinsing again, I put the plant back in the vase, filled it with pebbles, and refilled with fresh water.  

     I cut back the dead bits of leaves, and the thing slowly, day by day, came back to life.  

---

     Michael also got better.

---

     I'm not saying the two events are related.  

     I've read a lot about feng shui through the years.  The concepts mainly makes sense to me. Keeping your home clear and clean is probably good for you, both physically and mentally.  I can see a connection but, then again,  a lot of it sounds like mumbo jumbo too.

    Still, I gotta say...after this incident I have paid a lot more attention to connections like this.  

---  

       Flash forward to this past week when I've felt like crap. 

      I kept noticing our fountain in the backyard.  I'd see it coming in the house, or looking out a window. 

      It looked so forlorn just sitting there unused; some days bone dry, on rainy days it would get half filled with water.   

     I meant to fill it up...but just didn't have the energy.  

---

     I've always felt better when it's running.  It's kind of symbolic.  It says to me that we're home, and we've got enough time to be thinking about more than just surviving any given day. 

---

     My head cold was dragging on and on and finally, day before yesterday, I thought:  That's it!...I'm cleaning the dead leaves out and getting that thing going.

     Similar to that bamboo plant, there was a lot of slime in the bottom of the fountain.  It was a black, green, and smelly mess.  I had to get a lot of muck out to get the water clear and the fountain pumping fully. 

---

     Just the act of doing it worked right away:  I was outside in the sunshine.  I could enjoy the sound of the water splashing, and get that 'everything's getting taken care of' feeling.

---

    So is that good 'feng shui'?  Just good home care?  Or maybe even a brand of good self care?

    I'm not really sure.  But I think I'm starting to feel better.

---

"My view on feng shui: don't put your bed in front of the door because you won't get in."

-Jonas Eriksson

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"By your own efforts.  Waken yourself, watch yourself.  And live joyfully.  You are the master."

-Buddha

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"Don't own so much clutter that you will be relieved to see your house catch fire."

-Wendell Berry

The very best reason to fill the fountain is that the birds
really really dig it when we do.