A lesson in a flower
This bloom has taught me something valuable this year, though the story has to go back quite some time. I was playing with the idea of moving away from Nagano next year in the spring, thinking of beginning the job hunt at the end of the summer. At that point, it was still a fanciful idea, a little spark that settled into a warm glow in my chest. At that time too, I was growing these beautiful purple and white carnations, which I tended to assiduously. I would panic a little after being away, desperate to see if my plants had survived. When I was in the hospital in May this year, I didn't think they would die out, especially since I had left them for two weeks at a time every time I went home for Christmas. What I wasn't expecting, was that a much bigger plant would take over, and here begins our story. As I wrote about some time ago, I was getting ready to chuck out the whole plant when I realised that there was something growing at the bottom of all the dead crap. I q...