I noticed that the plants at the Life Connections Wellness Recovery Center could use a little help. Todd asked me to get some bigger pots and re-plant them, especially the spider plant, which has outgrown its pot and looks a little sad. I took both plants home and got new pots and fresh potting soil. I carefully removed the spider plant from the pot. Inside the pot, the roots had gone around the outer edge several times. It was holding on to old dirt that would no longer feed it. Tangled in the bottom of the pot, surrounded by roots, were the rocks that were supposed to allow drainage. The spider plant looked a little frazzled about on the surface, but where no one could see, it has repeatedly tried to save itself, and was in turmoil. It didn’t know what to do to help itself. I carefully loosened the roots to allow them to be planted in the new dirt and go in a new direction, I gave it water, trimmed the bad leaves, and took it back to the center, giving it a home in a sunny window.
This is what peer support can do. It can help us to look in a new direction for solutions when we are in crisis. It is just human nature, (and plants do this too!) to keep trying only what we need to do to survive, and not look outside ourselves or ask for help. I am famous for being a “one trip or die trying” when it comes to carrying things, both emotional and physical.
Sometimes we need to know where to go for help when we just can’t carry the load, and that is why outreach is important, there is always that one person who will benefit from our services and needs to hear about us. Even if they HAVE heard about us before, something might click with them, and it might be the right time to talk to us.
So, despite all the trauma this little plant had been through, being moved from the center to my house and back again, getting its roots rearranged, new soil, and a bigger pot, it looked a little frazzled the first week and we weren’t sure it was going to make it. This week it looks much better, it leaves reaching out to the sun. Recovery doesn’t happen overnight; it happens a little bit each day.
-Tiffany Anderson,
Recovery Center Manager