a little luck

I know...

To you, this looks like just a plant.  

Not much of a plant either.

But this plant has been through four moves across 2 states, 15 years of marriage (better and worse), 3 toddling and exploring children, little sunlight, great sunlight, no sunlight and everything in between.

The truth is that it is the ONLY indoor plant to have survived our home.  We were gifted with this plant when we were married.  The gifter was a tiny, energetic, older woman who wore dancing shoes every day.  She worked with Papa and just adored him.  She was kind and witty and full of stories or advice, whichever was needed in the moment.  She truly wanted a love-filled, fruitful marriage for Papa so she sealed the deal with a little luck.

This plant is a shamrock house plant, you see - Oxalis regnellii .

I'll let you in on a little secret.  While neither of us is really much into superstition, we are both terrified to neglect this little plant.  It's funny how it has thrived or wilted as our marriage seems to have done the same.  How at times the only way to keep it growing is to replant - new pot, new soil, new food, new water.  

How at times it leans toward the light, stretching itself to the heaven.  Other times it shrinks into itself as though in retreat.  

So while it has been tempting to just let go of this plant, we cannot.  To see the challenge and success, the darkness and the beauty, the joys and the sorrows of our marriage reflected through the life of this simple plant seems far too haunting to allow it to dissolve.  Perhaps that's the lesson in this little piece of luck - to nurture our marriage as we do so with our little shamrock.  Something tells me, our gifter was far wiser than her smiles and playfulness would ever reveal.

Now if we could just get our marriage to look more like this (Ahem!):

Image found at http://www.thegardenhelper.com/shamrock.htm