Weekend circumstances placed me at a pop-up event which offered plant specimens for sale, all sporting attractive flourishes of green, pink, white and red and some of the rare kind. Rare = fight! My fight style was more encompassing of dumb luck and fly under the radar rather than brutal fisticuffs. When a plant speaks to you, you must respond. This crazy, foreboding yet natural beauty sat on my wavelength and on some subconscious level I knew I’d take one home with me, despite the bleak chances of obtaining one.
Of course, this perennial was popular, it was like one of those poisonous frogs you only find in the Amazon jungle and accompanied by its ever so fitting street name ‘Persian Shield’. What?! Take my life savings! This scenario can be likened to the events when a conglomerate of people camps out in front of the electronics store to burst through the timid roller door upon opening hour. All with one goal, to grab the latest gadget no matter the consequences, pry it from fingers, create distractions, whatever the cost, obtain it! The difference is I knew my chances were slim and I entered that realm already accepting the fact that I’d most likely not have the thing I wanted. Aah, pleasant, peaceful, blissful acceptance.
No! I see one in someone else's hands and my fight is re-ignited! I grab the nearest staff member while supressing my fuelled momentum and ask if he could show we where they reside. The responding sentence he gave me unravelled in slow motion, “I’m sorry we don’t have any more available right now”. This is what came out of my mouth, “oh yeah, that’s OK…” this is what was on my face “someone just stole my triple layered ice-cream cake”. Micro seconds passed and what followed was a moment of understanding and graciousness on the staff member’s behalf, “If you wait about an hour, I can bring one out for you. I can’t release one now otherwise we’ll be overrun”. Yes times a million and a million times over again in several other languages, yes!
I had retrieved a form of concealment for protection of the rare specimen and waited that hour like a Palace Guard. The exchange was swift, my thanks was heart-felt, I nestled the plant in it’s cardboard box, made my way to the exit, escaping the next wave of onslaught for when the next batch was released at any moment.
Something was re-enforced in me that day; when you know a thing is meant to be yours, but the chances are slim, if the effort is made the circumstances will graciously change in your favour. What a crazy enlightening world.
I will look after this Shield on behalf of those who missed out and in turn it will grace me with its toxic beauty and I will be able to share the new growth with my friends.
** Plants are stuff too
