Thursday, October 8, 2009

To nurture...

I once planted a rose bush, in a pot, which my daughter had gifted to me (she knows I have a weakness for yellow roses) and my husband (he is the one with ‘green fingers’) helped me in the potting. I dug up the earth in the pot while he carefully placed the tiny sapling in it, covered it with the mud till it was standing safe and erect and then we sprinkled some water on it and kept it away from the direct Sun so that it may find its bearings before being sent out to woo visitors in the garden.

Both of us would then take turns at tending to the tender creature, placing it in the shade when it tended to droop or watering it and adding fertilizer till it grew into a verdant robust foliage. Our pride and effort in nurturing it was equal and without slack. Even now, when it is a fully grown plant we still tend to it so that it continues to flower and be healthy.

But imagine a scenario when either one of us felt that “it is enough to know that I planted it and I will derive my happiness from the fact that it exists (for as long as it does), my job of creation is done and I have nothing more to contribute.”

Would the poor sapling then survive for long, for is it not natural that something which started as a joint effort of ours, if left to be the sole responsibility of one, would take its toll on the toil and joy of the other?

We have been told, by sages down the years, that nurturing a relationship is like tending to a plant in our garden and requires continuing effort in order that it may grow and flourish. And yet, is this not what most of us are doing wrong? We seek a relationship, form one or are gifted one and then somewhere along the way we stop nurturing it. It just is. And therein sets the decay…

Why can’t we see that truly meaningful and happy relationships around us are the ones where the effort continues unabated, in however small a measure, on an everyday basis. People who make them work ‘water’ the lifebreath of their relationship everyday and tending to it is a part of their way of living. It is easy to envy but are we willing to emulate…?

4 comments:

Ashutosh Blogs said...

Are relationships so difficult to nurture? No doubt, there has to be an effort from the constituents who should believe in relationship. Else it's not worth taking efforts.

nupur said...

thank u ashutosh...if there were no belief there would be no cause for a relationship to existand that perhaps is what we have lost track of, the fact that there was a belief which led to a creation and maybe that is why we forget to nurture..

vks said...

To nurture bush rose plant was an affection of love n care being source to harness for long lasting as a momento from very close to heart dear one. Efforts do are required to see the bloom later. Same goes for nurturing relationship, but commitment from both is required as single person cannot garnish life long. It is meaningless and slow decay...

shubhra said...

that is why the parent child relationship is by far the most longlasting, wholesome and fulfilling one...there is constant nurturing...