Wearing a Girdle

I transplanted a chartreuse sweet potato vine from last summer’s flowerpot. Somehow the vine survived the winter in my solarium.

When i shook off the dirt, i saw that the plant was wearing a girdle–a tiny one-inch-long, one-half-inch-wide fiber “pot”, slightly larger than a thimble. Many houseplants and bedding plants–poinsettias, begonias, geraniums, and many others–start their lives in these fiber thimbles.

As the plant grows, the girdle constrains their roots. Women over 70 remember squeezing into a girdle in order to attach nylon stockings–before the advent of pantyhose. Girdles are tight and uncomfortable, so i enjoyed freeing my sweet potato vine from its constraint.

Don’t constrain yourself from doing good deeds. Free yourself to follow that impulse, follow your intuition, and practice kindness. Even toward your houseplants.

 

 

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