Re-Blooming

Eyebrows: Week 7      Eyelashes: Week 5

Day 36 (March 11, 2019)

Hey God!

            Today is a momentous day!! It is the beginning of a new week of growth, BUT there is another type of growth that has happened, and I am freakin’ over the moon about it. (I can hardly contain my joy!) Okay, obviously you know that over the six-year period that Dane and I have been married, I have not been able to keep any plants alive. (I don’t know what it is, Lord, but it just seems like I do not have a very green thumb.) Even though I love to have flowers in the house, they just don’t last very long. (Orchids are my nemesis!) Well knowing that blooms make me incredibly happy, Dane decided to try something different. Spring, of last year, he brought home a potted African Violet. It had a couple of white blooms (not violet lol) nestled within a thick mass of fuzzy leaves.

            Since I had never taken care of African Violets before, I looked up how best to keep them alive. I learned that they enjoy indirect sunlight—which was perfect since the window it would sit in faces East and does not get direct sunlight during the afternoons—and they are very temperamental when it comes to water. Interestingly, they do much better if administered lukewarm water, and they are only to be watered when their soil is dry, or else they could very well drown. I also found out that it was important not to get water on their leaves because it gives them water spots. (Some leaves have some spotting but, overall, I think I have done a pretty good job watering them from beneath the canopy.) I will be honest though, I did get a little worried because the little white flowers did not bloom for long and, in my head, I was like, “Well, here we go again!” Instead of cutting the dead blooms off the stems, I decided to just pull them off and leave the stems the way they were. The plant seemed to take this well and, over the next few months, I continued to water it the way I was instructed and removed any dead foliage from beneath the canopy.

            Winter was the true test. Up in the Frozen North everything gets so stinkin’ dry, and I just did not know if it could survive the constant air flow of our crazy heater. The heater in our place blows air out of 10 small air vents in the ceiling—and you got to understand our place is only 499 square feet—and with that many air vents, it creates an insane amount of air flow as you can probably imagine. (It makes it feel like we are in the middle of a howling windstorm. So, forget hearing the tv at all!) Knowing how crazy our heater is, I was happy that the spot I had chosen for the plant only had one air vent near it. I hoped this would cause less warm, dry, air to blast my pretty little plant. The best I could do was allow it to keep getting its indirect sunlight and plenty of water during our frigid winter.

            AND GUESS WHAT, LORD!!?? My African Violet not only survived the winter but freakin’ thrived!! (Who knew that I had a super green thumb for African Violets.) We are now nine days away from a new Spring season, and my little plant is taking off!! It started out with about 15 fuzzy leaves and now has over 30!! And, to top it off, it has over 20 new buds sprouting below and above the canopy of leaves. And, Lord, today the first flower fully blossomed! Oh, God, this is the first time I have had any plant re-bloom before—EVER! (I feel like an overjoyed mama who has nourished and loved her little youngin’ to the best of her ability and who, finally, gets to see her precious, little, gift shine.) 

            What a joyous time it is, Lord! Outside the ground may still be covered in ice and snow; the trees and flowers might still have a ways to go before they bud and re-bloom; but inside this little condo, growth is abundant. My eyebrow hairs are nearing the home stretch in their re-growth process—two(ish) weeks left! The curved ridges of my eyebrows are looking fuller and fuller by the day, and their healthy appearance fills me with so much pride because I know how hard I have worked not to pull. My eyelash lines are now past the halfway mark—three weeks and six(ish) days left! The curved ridges of my eyelash lines are completely dotted with little blonde hairs, which grow longer and darker each day, sparking loads of positive inner self-talk as the patchiness disappears. AND, to my great joy, my African Violet went from surviving to thriving. Reminding me that re-growth can be accomplished through one-part tender care, two-parts hard work, and three-parts prayer.

Always,

Your Daughter Kaitlan

P.S. Lord, thank you so much for the ability to transform and grow. Thank you for putting reminders in our everyday lives—like little house plants—that reveal to us that re-growth is possible. Help others, who are dealing with Trichotillomania, to open their eyes to these daily reminders because they can be such sweet forms of encouragement from you to them. Thank you!

Thank you for reading! If you are new, this is a chronological blog series. It is best read in order. CLICK HERE for the intro.