My Beloved Sapling

 Dear diary,

                   I haven't spoken to you in a few months. I'll catch you up with a unique experience I had in my childhood.

                   When I was a child, my grandparents had a little kitten. I used to visit them frequently as a child just to play with the kitty. I had named her Lichi. She was a beautiful, cute calico. She used to sit in my lap and purr all the time. She used to chase around a small plastic ball. It was a funny sight. She liked playing with a cotton string. Like a baby growing it's milk teeth, she wanted to chew on the string. Eventually, she started biting my hand in a playful manner. But after a year or so, my grandfather had to give her up for adoption. I cried a lot. Lichi had, in a way, become my best friend. I never saw her again. If she's still alive, she must be about 14 years old now. There was a lot going on in life back then, which made it easier to cope with it. She helped cope with a lot of what was going on as well.

                   A lot has happened since then. A few years back, I didn't have friends. I've always wanted to have a similar pet cat at home, but my parents wouldn't let me have one. So I brought home some Banyan seeds. I sowed some seeds in a small pot. I used to water the plant every day, but it never grew. I gave it fertilizers and stuff. I started talking about my day to the seedlings. I started saying positive affirmations. After much effort, it finally sprouted a small leaf through the ground. But by that time, I had lost much of my interest. I did put effort, time, money, energy and love into that plant, bit it took so long, I lost interest. I was a small child. Then I did something I should've done much sooner. I consulted my gardening enthusiast grandfather about some tips. He informed me that banyan trees grow better in a large yard but work in bonsai if you have the correct knowledge of it. The plant required the one thing I didn't have, a backyard. Life is funny indeed. I did understand one thing that day, though. The act of admiring a flower should be done from afar. Unless one has the know how of nourishing it, it should not be plucked.

Neither should one spend their resources on stuff that they aren't sure of will bear them fruit. The plant died out soon after. I cried a lot. I thought the only chance of me having a pet or a friend was gone. But life does us all some good. I made real friends, showed my parents I was capable of handling a pet, got a life indeed.

Maybe the same plant could've bloomed if I had used some other techniques. Maybe it would've grown in someone else's yard. I'd love to restart with the same plant, but I know it's dead now, and I must live with that. Although the plant never blossomed, I hope it knows that the sheer possibility of it blooming gave me the energy to get out of bed everyday. I loved that one to the core.

APOP