I awoke one morning early this week with the knowledge that I had to write a new article. I was having a hard time figuring out what I was going to write about – until I walked through the kitchen and saw a dead houseplant in the sink.
I have lost both of my parents over the last few years, and as a result, we have received many houseplants from friends and loved ones to help our family in those sad times. In fact, we received so many that we had a difficult time knowing where to put them all. Most of these plants ended up in the living room, dining room and family room. Unfortunately, one small plant got put on a shelf in the hallway at the back of the house, where we don’t go as often.
A couple of weeks ago I walked by this plant and could see it hadn’t been quenched in some time and was in bad shape, so I took it to the kitchen and filled it with water. Since then, I have watered it daily (sometimes twice), trying to save it. Sadly, when I looked at it this morning, I knew it was gone.
I thought to myself, wow, all that time wasted. But then, the bigger lesson dawned on me (and no, it isn’t that plants need water). Instead, the lesson was there is a proper time for effort, care, nurturing or attention to something, and once we miss that window of time, there’s just no turning back. It doesn’t matter how much time and effort we put into trying to change what has already happened. It will be in vain.
One example that comes to mind is those who have unhealthy lifestyles, like smoking, for instance. In my life, I have known many smokers who said they needed to give up smoking but didn’t actually do so until they were diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer, COPD, or some other serious disease. It’s only once they received drastic, devastating news that they actually stopped smoking. Unfortunately, just like me watering the doomed plant several times a day to bring it back around, the smokers’ efforts are often too late and to little avail. The time for consequential change has already passed.
This lesson can also be applied to our relationships with others. For example, I have known numerous couples who took their spouse for granted and, at some point, their mate had enough and filed for divorce. The filing of divorce then inevitably prompted the other spouse to retroactively express their love and affection for their mate. Sadly, for many, that nurturing came too late, and no amount of effort could resurrect the love they once had for each other.
There are many examples of where we fail to take timely action and to which this lesson applies, that there is not enough time or paper to list them all, but there is one overriding lesson: there is a time for action, and often that action can be as minor as pouring a cup of water in a plant’s pot or telling your mate that you love them, but once that time has passed, no amount of effort will undo the damage that could have been so easily avoided.
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