Someone gave me a plant.

I am sure she meant well and thought that I would enjoy taking care of yet another thing that I have to water, repot, find a place for, figure out what it is and casually toss into my compost heap when no one is looking.

But no.  I kept it on the front porch where I passed its wilty brown leaves everyday thinking to myself that I really should trim it or stick it in a bigger pot, mais non, I just let it sit there annoying me every day.    And sure enough, I grew to resent the sight of it, the guilt of itm and my inability to get myself to spend any time doing anything about it.  All this because someone gave me a gift.

Gift, Shmift

Beware of energy sapping gifts.  These are items that give the giver more pleasure than the giftee.  Usually they are things that the giver thinks are “special” or “something you wouldn’t get for yourself”.  Chances are, you were never consulted about what you would like or what you could really use.  So, the tchotchkas you have accumulated as well meaning gifts over the years have found their way into your precious closet space or forced you to become a gasp! regifter where you run the risk of making a dreadful faux pas should you regift to the wrong person.

What is actually more distressing is the energy you waste dealing with all of this.  Think of the clear space and clarity of mind you would have without these things in your life.    These physical tokens of misdirected love take energy away from you that you could be using elsewhere.

So, early one morning, after a beautiful headclearing beach run, I came home with a plan.  I calmly dumped the plant into my composter where it will become a welcome part of my future garden.  And do I feel better?  Absolutely!

We all need plans and we all need plants.

Now that you know what I did with my plant, here’s my Twelve Step Plan for Restless Creatives.  For those of you joining us, here are the steps you missed:

1 Get over yourself

2 Get off the grid

3 Get local

4 Bring on color

5 Avoid vampires

6 Read like a writer

7 Stop the frenzy

8 Live artfully

9 Thank yourself

10 Do small things bigly

And the step for today is:

11  Fix your feng shui

Is there something in your life that you could find a better use for?    According to feng shui consultant Catherine Brophy thefengshuidetective.com,  ” These things take energy from you that you could expend on something else.”  So the next time I passed by that pathetic plant, I made up my mind to add it to my compost and not get fahrdreht (Yiddish for turned around/crazy) over it ever again.

Believe me, you will feel great once you take care of your dead plant, squeaky lock, or that picture that always hangs crooked and your feng shui will be fei cheong (Cantonese for very) fabulous.

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Hoong Yee

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