Sometimes, Nourishment is the Work

[Image Description: Bright, yellow flowers with green stems and leaves on a brown table with two brown chairs behind them. The flowers are leaning over the container in many directions.]

I bought some flowers at Trader Joe’s on Saturday. I don’t know what type of flowers these are (do you?) but they’re lovely. And I like to buy them because when we put them in a vase, they will often last for weeks.

So I was sad and pretty surprised when I kept them in their sleeve on a table for just a couple hours and they wilted completely. (Way more than the first photo above). It was such a quick transformation that I assumed I needed to put them immediately in the compost.

“Well, I guess I’ll try,” I thought. I put these extremely wilted flowers in a vase with water and plant food. Then I ran an errand, and when I came back, they had perked right up. This too was completely surprising to me. And a couple of days later, they are even stronger and more vibrant.

Sometimes, nourishment is the work.

Nourishment is what we need. We can give this gift to ourselves in self-care. And community-care can be even more transformative, when with consent and empowerment, we are nourishing each other.

Sometimes, nourishment is the work.

— Renee Roederer

[Image Description: Bright, yellow flowers with green stems and leaves on a brown table with two brown chairs behind them. Now the flowers are tall and straight.]