Grow

 We have flowers growing in their pots in our monastery cloisters, halls.  The plants make no sounds.  They grow in silence.  Over the course of a week they get a little attention, but are mostly left to be themselves.  They flower beautifully in their time.  They get some sun through the window, some water, and a bit of pruning.  I can learn from the flowers.  I need silence to grow, and some attention, but mostly solitude, like the plants.  When I talk a lot, make a lot of commotion so I won' be ignored, I don't really grow much.  If I walk into a room and no one pays any attention to me, I can be like the plants, and grow in the silence and solitude.  I can look watch and see in the room.   Maybe the plants are watching me.  Maybe they grow best when we are kindred spirits as I walk by in the cloister, silent and in solitude.