My garden was designed to be very simple with simply hardy plants that would survive drought and dry season. My guiding theories for choosing plants and their planting locations were based on Chinese Feng Shui. The right flowering plants with specific colours of their blossoms had to be placed at the correct locations or directions for auspicious vibes. This made it quite easy for me to buy small pot plants at the nursery as my choices were already made for me by theories or guiding principles.
My main requirement was that most of the flowers from these plants should be suitable for making offerings to Buddha statue shrines and land spirit shrines. So, most of my plants would have white flowers, preferably with sweet fragrance. Then, I would have cheap flowering plants for butterflies and insects. Some old friends had gifted me with honey suckle (which didn’t survive the drought) and some red flowering plants (which could survive extreme heat) including several orchids (some had dried up and toasted by strong sunshine). So, I knew I wasn’t a good gardener as I didn’t observe these plants when they were suffering from bad weather conditions.
Nowadays I tried to survey the garden behind the house to see whether they needed extra attention or help. My gardener wouldn’t pay much attention to flowering plants; as she only focused on fruit trees. We had planted several fruit trees after the flood last year, I hoped that these would survive and prosper for many years. The banana trees have yet to recover from the flood as most had perished under flood water.
This summer the weather was very hot and dusty. The sky has become greyish as the micro dust got blown from the north of the river. There seemed to be many construction projects and expansion of the city, due to Chinese investment. Some people told me it’s the unofficial take over of the country in which more Chinese settlers would be settling there as merchants, businessmen or investors. This prospect was troubling to me as the geopolitical situation has began to heat up and things could get mire serițous next year.
To my surprise, I was greeted by orchid blossoms in my garden in the morning. This time I had to take the night train as all the trains were fully booked ahead of the Thai New Year’s holiday. The wild orchid presented lovely yellow flowers with no fragrance. These looked very fragile and dainty, they would last only a few days. On the other hand, I noticed that the cheap and simple purple orchids had presented us with new blossoms. These flowers would last up to three weeks! They were very cheap and required little attention.
I was glad I bought these simple and cheap orchids last month. I wished I had bought two more pink ones! These orchids seemed to have very different vibes from other flowering plants. They tended to be much more reserved and introvert. They kept their thoughts to themselves whereas other plants seemed to be more talkative and noisy. Sometimes I could feel these plants complained about my lack of attention and care for them. I had noticed that since after the big earthquakes in Burma which also impacted Bangkok and other cities, there seemed to be a new kind of energy we which slowly permeated my surroundings.
I guessed that the impending reset of a new cycle or era has been ignited lately, so the earthquakes were a kind of churning over the old fabric of energetic patterns. So new patterns of energies could slowly be formed and developed for the new chapter of humanity. I didn’t like such drastic change but I couldn’t stop the wheel of karmic consequences. I knew this would be a tough and testing time for me.
My plants were trying to comfort me and cheer me up. Each day I was greeted with sudden blooming of white flowers with sweet fragrance. The ground was covered by lots of dry flowers. Other plants have started to show off green buds which would turn into white flowers with sweet fragrance. My gardener would collect these white flowers to offer the Buddhist shrine at the local temple and at her own shrine at home. I was glad these plants survived both the flood and the hot summer.
The two plants at the back of the house have very strong fragrance in the evening. They both had yellow flowers: one was Ylang-ylang. The other was called Golden gardenia. The white flowers were called Cape jasmine. I have also noticed a special orchid with dangling white flowers with very sweet fragrance. I only noticed these flowers two days later when I saw lots of black insects being attracted by the string fragrance. I forgot the name of this orchid which I bought over a year ago. The fragrance was just very sweet and strong for such small orchids.
This was the first time my garden inundated me with flowers everyday for a whole week. They knew I had been through a rough time lately and I felt lost for a while. They tried to comfort me and heal my weary spirit so that I would have the energy to soldier on my destiny. My eyes had been opened to see the hidden true nature of some people I had respected and cared for during these years. I had realised that they weren’t not sincere and pretended to be good for a purpose. I felt I had been used and made to look foolish. They must have very low regards for my sincerity and good intention.
Lately, I had been let down by people whom I trusted and admired for their good hearts. But there they turned out to be all fake. These people’s mind were driven by scheming and self-interest; they knew nothing about compassion or kindness. They acted nice and sweet because the others could be useful to them in the future. I was glad I had all these lovely and fragrant flowers to heal my soul. Nature has always been very compassionate and benevolent towards me and my orange cats.
It took a long time to get to know the colours of some people’s hearts. I had been so used to honest and sincere cats that I thought people would have the same qualities. How I had over estimated the strength and forthright of humans’ characters. I had to thank Nature and all my plants for being so kind and generous towards me I time of troubling and confusing mind.
Wishing you peace, good health and prosperity.
Stay strong and cheerful.