A little while ago I was given a plant. The person who gave me the aloe plant said that they had it growing in abundance in their backyard. That it had spread in such large amounts that they were potting it and giving it away. Basically, I was given a very healthy and vibrant aloe plant. It was beautiful. 

I was thinking that because I was told it was such a hearty and healthy plant that if I just put it right outside my front door it would just flourish. Turns out I was wrong. What actually happened within a very short period of time was I noticed that the plant became more and more unhealthy. It began to slowly die. I even tried to water it but not too much water because I know that isn’t good for that kind of plant.  Yet no matter what I did the plant seemed to be on its way to a quick death. 

About that time that the plant was dying I had to relocate. When I moved, I almost left the plant because honestly it looked like a pot with a dead plant in it.  So why would I bother to take it with me. However, I decided that I would go ahead and take it because I could use the pot for something at least. When I got it to my new place, I put it out front just like I had at my last place. However, the front of my new place is a little different then where I lived before. It wasn’t under a shaded area per se. It did have some shade from a tree, but it was in the thriving flower bed right in front of the house. I noticed after a few months at the house that the plant was actually coming back. I didn’t do anything to it, yet is began to grow and look healthy. By the time I lived at the house six months it looked like the cactus plant that my friend had given me and now it has grown even more.

I’m all about life lessons from practical things so I started thinking about this plant. It occurred to me that where the plant is placed can determine the health of the plant. Do you see the lesson? Location matters. It matters for the health and the vibrancy of any plant. You have to know the right amount of light it needs or the right amount of shade. You have to know the right amount of moisture that the plant needs. With all those things in mind, you have to put it in a place where it will receive what it requires. There is a place that offers that perfect environment for it to thrive and that is true for every different kind of plant. 

We as people are much like plants in this way. The same person in a different environment with the right energy and care being poured into them will flourish, whereas in other situations that don’t provide what they need they will become unhealthy and diminished. If you’re in a place and you’re not flourishing it might not be that something is actually wrong with you. Your environment could be either lack something you need or it could be toxic. Understand that even if chose to put yourself in that situation, that doesn’t mean you have remain in it.

Our environments feed into us. It’s very important to be careful about where you plant yourself. Consider if it is an environment that has what you need before you permanently transplant yourself there.  Know that if you find yourself in a bad place because the environment you are in is toxic and negative, you can move yourself. You don’t have to stay.  If you plant yourself somewhere else, you’ll have a different result, but change does take courage.  The alternative is to stay and wither and that should never be a choice you make. 

It’s important to know where you are planting yourself in life. Are you taking care to ensure that it’s a place where you’ll receive the things that you need? When there are toxic things that are coming into that environment are you addressing them and removing them? Are you moving away from them? Or are you remaining and letting them infect you and slowly kill you? I have good news for you, if you have found yourself in an environment not conducive to allowing you to thrive and you chose to transplant yourself somewhere else, people can come back just like my plant.  Just take care not to wait too long and understand that it will take time to heal and begin to thrive again.  But your vibrancy will return.

I hope this lesson is clear, that our lives can if in the right environment flourish and we can thrive, but toxic, abusive, and excessively negative environments can harm and diminish us.  Literally your environment affects you. Consider where you are planted.  Maybe it’s time for a change.