Flowers That Refused to Die

My struggling anthurium also known as the flamingo flower is almost being swallowed by a New Guinea impatiens. Honestly, I should never have planted them together. Now I face the delicate task of separating them without killing one or both.

But their coexistence has a story.

When my friend Naomi gave me a small cutting of the impatiens, I was sceptical. I had never seen such fleshy cutting bloom. To humour her, I pushed the little stem into the soil of the anthurium pot, confident it would never take root. Sure enough, the stem shrivelled and disappeared.

Inwardly, I whispered to Naomi: “See? I told you so.”

But weeks later, a tiny shoot appeared. Then another. Now, the pot is ablaze with orange blooms; lush, radiant, alive.

Some dreams are like that.

• They need a “Naomi” in our lives – someone who sees what we cannot yet imagine or helps us explore and seek out what is possible.
• They are like the impatiens – refusing to die, pushing through neglect, waiting for us to notice them.

If I had taken Naomi’s word seriously and nurtured that little cutting, the blooms might have come sooner, fuller, stronger. Still, I am grateful. The impatiens taught me resilience. It refused to die despite my doubt.

It makes me wonder: What dreams in my life have refused to die despite neglect? Where is persistence signalling purpose?

Discomfort often points us there. It is unsettling to admit that you’ve ignored a calling or neglected a possibility. But growth never happens in the tried and tested.

To grow, you must lean into discomfort; the awkward, the uncertain, the vulnerable. That is where better questions emerge:

• What else could I do?
• Where else might I be?
• How else should I proceed?

These questions open new vistas. They invite curiosity and spur us to act with courage.

Discomfort is not an enemy, it’s a guide. It helps you discover the self you might otherwise have ignored.

Like the impatiens, your true dream might just be waiting for you to pay attention. Paying attention is what you do when you pause and reflect. This gives you the possibility of digging deeper. Sometimes digging deeper needs a helping hand, a hand that through attentive listening nudges us to confront the uncomfortable by asking us good or powerful questions thus pointing us to what we might be skeptical about or might not have considered. These ‘Naomis’ come drapped as professional coaches.