Worth Waiting For

Some things are worth waiting for. Building a new studio... buying a new car.... taking a special vacation... These are just a few things that come immediately to my mind. You can probably think of many others and truth be known, if we compared our lists of things worth waiting for, they'd probably look completely different.

I've thought about this a lot this week. I remember my folks telling me, "You'll appreciate ______ so much more if you work for it.... save for it... wait for it. I could fill in that blank in a variety of ways... college, a new car, a promotion... It annoyed me to no end when they said that, but I know now, that they were right.

So anyway, this plant to the right is what triggered all this. My Mom called it a "Lipstick Plant", but I'm not sure that's the correct name. (Maybe one of you know?) It's actually the second such plant I've had. This one is really just a sad shadow of what my 1st plant looked like, because it was huge and full and when it bloomed, (which it did without fail EVERY year), there were so many red flowers, you almost couldn't see any green leaves. It was spectacular as well as legendary among my friends, who were always asking for cuttings. But sadly, when we moved to our new house in the winter of 2002, this gorgeous plant was left in an unheated sunroom overnight (along with all of my orchids) and didn't survive. It was my fault, and I was heartbroken.

Immediately, I called in my markers and got cuttings from the many "offsprings" I'd given away. But no matter what I did, this 3rd generation plant was just barely surviving. I tried re-potting it, feeding it, pruning it. I tried different locations in the house, for more or less light. I misted it, watered it at root level, and let it dry out between waterings, but it was still undeniably, an ugly, ugly plant. On more than one occasion, I thought about cutting my losses and starting over with a new beautiful plant, but then I remembered my part in the untimely demise of the grandparent plant, and I reconsidered.

And then on Tuesday, it happened! This little ugly plant, which heretofore had only produced perhaps 2-3 blooms per season, was flush with dozens of little blooms! OK- it's still just a shadow of the grandparent plant, but it was such a lovely surprise, made all the sweeter because I've waited 8 years for it to happen!

And speaking of wonderful things that are worth waiting for, here's the latest ultrasound picture of Little C (my grandson), which was taken on Wednesday. His eyes are open now and the doc says he's a big boy, already weighing in at ~4 pounds, though not due until April 2. Looks like I might need to quit calling him Little C, but that's OK, since I've finally been cleared to tell you his real name, which will be Canaan!

I don't know what he's thinking so hard about in this picture, but I'm thinking he might be ready to make an entrance long about mid-March, and I'll be ready and happily waiting!