My husband commutes to the Cape from NY every weekend. When he arrives on Friday night, I hold the door open while he brings in his gear. Last night he went back out to his truck after bringing in the last suitcase. He came to the door with a six foot potted banana plant. "Surprise!", he said.
My jaw just dropped. My daughter gave him tiny banana plant shoots over a year ago for Father's Day. He raised them on our kitchen table in our apartment in NY. I had no idea they had turned into floor plants in my absence. Now I had to find a place to put this thing. I had an idea.
In the summer a friend was over and I showed her my serenity room, built for yoga, meditation, art, music, and writing. I did a beautiful job three years ago building this room and getting a new computer so I would have a serene place to write. My friend loved my room, but when I complained that I couldn't sit at the this computer and write, she just looked at me knowingly and smiled. This was something that's bothered me all three years. I have a gorgeous room to work in, but I prefer to sit in the family room and write on my phone. She said, "Of course you can't. The computer isn't by the window." The light went on. She was right. Every writer friend's home I visited had their computer in front of a window. I was going to have to empty this room, clean it, and start from scratch. A full day's work.
I'd been meaning to get to it for three weeks now, but the sudden arrival of this amazing plant made me decide today was the day. I emptied the room, washed the floor and my husband helped me move the commuter table over to the window side of the room. After finding the perfect home for the banana plant, I began putting things back into the room one by one. I soon began to see there were things that I didn't want in the room anymore. I ended up with a pile of stuff in the dining room that I must somehow make disappear. As I dusted objects and redesigned the room, I pondered why this was so. Why do certain things not fit in my room recreation?
The answer was clear. It's been three years since I created that room. I'm not the same person I was three years ago. Three years ago I hadn't written a single word. Three years ago this blog didn't exist. Three years ago my mom was still alive. Three years ago I was newly retired. Three years ago I had just moved to a different state. Things that meant something to me back then, don't hold the same value in my life anymore. Who I used to be, now sits in a pile in a corner of the dining room. My "new" new room reflects who I am now. My soul just moved up another notch on it's journey. Time and experiences have redefined me.
I sit here tonight listening to music I never listened to before, entertaining thoughts new to my brain, and loving the pieces of who I have become that surround me.
And so, as another day goes by, we, like the snakes and the hermit crabs are called upon to shed our skins and change our homes to fit the space of life we now occupy, I love my banana plant and the changes it has forced me to make, and…I have written.
Beautifully done and it resonated with me. I am also re-ordering my living space and getting rid of things I had collected over a 15-year span. The removing and rearranging have given me a new lease on life and I’m excited to see things unfold.
Being a Jamaican I was curious as to hat you ahd to say about a banana plant 🙂