"It might just need to move into a bigger pot." This aloe vera plant that has survived me for four years, that I almost killed by neglect several times, it's still growing, and it's in too small of a pot now to support its growth. This aloe plant was a housewarming gift from two friends who taught me so much about community and creating family through sharing meals made together: everyone has something to bring to the table; and through sharing hearts authentically: better to be honest about a bad day and show up anyway than hide and reject loving arms. It lived inside first, in a living room. And then I moved and it enjoyed some time basking in the company of other plants on a front porch under the care of a quiet, steady saint. She moved and almost all its companions perished, and it almost did, too, but another steady saint moved it into a quiet, hidden place, and it continued to bloom. In the corner of that shower it got light and it got water. It heard prayers and it heard questions and it heard songs. It bore witness to heart changes and renewals of the mind, and quietly held the testimony of the fruit of God-centered community. An aloe vera plant. Break its leaves for access to a cool and healing balm that has been used for centuries all around this earth. This humble plant holds titles of "silent healer," "desert lily," "royal plant," and "plant of immortality." Its origins are uncertain, but its distinguishing name, vera, means "true" and its first name speaks of a fragrance and heartwood. I have grown up steeped in Christianity, so in gathering together the words heartwood, fragrance, and true, I can't help but think of the cross and my Savior upon it that Good Friday. Yeshua: Royalty who grew in wisdom silently for thirty years before stepping into the ministry that brings healing to the world and offers eternal life. Yeshua: The perfect fragrant offering. Yeshua: Flipping death on its head by redefining the shameful cross through submitting to it in humility and then resurrecting. Yeshua: The One who is always true. Of course it all points back to You. This gift that represents family, healing, life. All of your creation sings Your praises. All of your creation is made to bring glory to You. There's more here yet for me to learn, but for now I will sit in gratitude, in wonder, and begin my search for a bigger pot. SOURCES
A mysterious provenancehttps://blogs.biomedcentral.com/bmcseriesblog/2015/02/26/history-aloe-vera-arabian-desert-cream-use-hands/ “flower of the desert” “the plant of immortality” “elixir of eternal life” The benefits of aloe vera were discovered again at the end of World War II after verifying that it cured the burns of people injured in the nuclear explosions of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. https://www.atalayabio.com/en/the-history-of-aloe-vera/ "Desert Lily" "Royal plant" "Silent healer" In Sanskrit, Aloe is known as Ghrita Kumari, Kumar means girl and it was believed that this plant supplied the energy of youth to women and had a rejuvenating effect on the female nature. Christopher columbus once said, “Four vegetables are indispensable for the well being of man : wheat, the grape, the olive and Aloe. The first nourishes him, the second raises his spirit, the third brings him harmony and the fourth cures him.” http://www.iosrjournals.org/iosr-jhss/papers/Vol.%2022%20Issue8/Version-16/D2208162124.pdf Etymology originally in reference to the drug, from Latin aloe, from Greek aloe, which is of uncertain origin, probably a loan-word from an Oriental language A secondary sense is older in English: "Fragrant resin or heartwood of an East Indian tree" Vera - true https://www.etymonline.com/word/aloe Comments are closed.
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AuthorI write to process. I write to explore. I write with the hope of sharing truth greater than my own. Archives
February 2022
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