Plants are for Lovers
February is an overwhelming month. The commercialized pressure to perform romance with cloned flowers, boxes of chocolates and grand gestures leaves us feeling deflated, and in an effort to shower others with affection, we often forget to take care of our own hearts.
Whether you’re single or partnered or somewhere in-between, taking time to be tender with yourself is key to being able to love others more fully and freely. Is it any surprise that when it comes to self-love, plants shine as our biggest (certainly greenest) allies?
Houseplants are unexpected Valentines; they get ignored year after year in favor of flashy bouquets but our unassuming plant friends have the power to bring us back to ourselves through the ritual of plant care and their physical presence in our homes.
Rooted in Ritual
The ritual of tending to houseplants—long weekend showers, gentle misting, meticulous pruning—is romantic AF not to mention as much for our own well being as it is for our plants. The meditative time we spend feeding and grooming them inspires quiet reflection and a necessary pause to the outside world’s endless demands.
Plants give us a sense of rootedness. They nourish our need to create with purpose and to return to the fundamentals of a healthy life: clean water, fresh air, rich soil and strong roots.
Plants Spark Inner Joy
Have you noticed that wildly-popular decluttering method doesn’t have a plants category? Which makes perfect sense. So many of our belongings end up burdening rather than comforting us, but houseplants are the antithesis of clutter and chaos. Unlike the inanimate objects around them gathering dust, plants are thriving, living beings.
Environments with plants are cleaner and more vibrant in a literal way, but there’s a philosophical bent to their charm, too. Just like us, their growth isn’t measurable from day to day, but we all know that magical moment when we find a little sprout or new height. It's then that we celebrate the hard work that, up until that moment, had escaped our naked eyes.
Plants are daily reminders that we're also growing in ways that we don’t always get (or give!) credit for.
The caretaking habits we form around our houseplants mirror how we take care of our hearts, loving ourselves not as an afterthought or a metaphor but integrated into the way we actually do life. Plants teach us to love ourselves not because we earned it, but because we’re already worth it.
