Ode to a Plant

So, there's a story behind these photos, which leads to the story behind the plant. A photography message board I frequent hosts weekly challenges. This week the challenge is "green." I took a few snaps of our one and only houseplant and immediately liked the results. I was so pleased with the photos, that I decided to share them here. Which prompted me to share the story of this little plant because it's pretty poignant in our house.

This bamboo plant found it's way into my home from Target of all places. It started out as a cluster several bamboo shoots, enclosed by the single spiral shoot. My severe lack of horticulture skills led to the loss of that cluster of shoots. When Bryan came around, this single zany shoot of bamboo intrigued him. He accidentally uprooted it trying to figure out how it stood on it's own.

When it came time for us to move from North Carolina to Texas, I was ready to say goodbye to the plant. Bryan insisted on taking it with us, which meant packing it in our already overloaded car. Within the first leg of the trip, the plant toppled over, leaving gravel all over the back of my Jeep. Again, I was ready to give up on the thing, but for some reason, Bryan had grown attached to it.



And so, at Bryan's encouraging, this plant came to endure all the stresses of moving that the rest of us endured. It lasted with us through the remainder of the trip. It lasted with us through the week in a hotel. It now sits solely, proudly as the only living creature (other than the humans) in our household. I doubt we'll ever become "plant people," but something about this one makes it feels like it belongs.