New Growth

I’ve had this focus bonsai for, I believe, close to 20 years. I water it, feed it, and prune it regularly.

 

Maybe about sixish months ago, it started dropping leaves. Eventually, only one semi-healthy branch remained, with just a few other dying leaves on a couple of other branches. But I kept on watering, feeding, and pruning—refusing to give up hope on my plant buddy, even though it was looking and feeling very hopeless.

 

Last week, I used a new plant food for all of my green babies—an ice pack that comes with a medication I receive monthly. I thawed it and diluted the gel inside into my watering can, then crossed my fingers.

 

Today, on a day I needed a lesson more than I realized, I was doing my regular watering and noticed lots and lots of new growth. Many tiny green bud are popping out of hard, brittle branches…and even out of its decades-old trunk. It’s the most beautiful sight to behold!

 

I’m so glad I didn’t give up on my little old plant friend. Beneath its crustier-every-day exterior was something healthy and new, just waiting for the right time and nutrients to pop out.

 

I didn’t realize how much I needed this awesome sign of encouragement today. But I did. And, as signs go, came in perfect timing and in a perfect way.

 

Onward!

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Marty Johnson is a Business & Leadership Coach at AYM High Consultants, a columnist, an editor, and Co-Host of the MoJo Motivation™ podcast. In 2023, he sold his popular shipping, storage, and printing business, Uncle Marty’s, and retired from shopkeeper life in order to focus on writing and coaching. Subscribe to his free newsletter and read more at askunclemarty.com; follow him on socials @askunclemarty.