I once heard of a man who had been living in a secluded area, being the hermit himself. Up to this point, and apart from his absent neighbor, his only companion had been his garden, to which he devoted himself as one would to a god.
One day, while going through his watering routine, he noticed his neighbor's plants which were somehow full of dust and now browner in colors. The leaves were drier. And he thought to himself, “How irresponsible of him. To get himself plants, and to ignore them as if they could care for themselves.”
A few days had passed since his unfortunate remark, and the neighborhood saw a newcomer, actually two — a woman and her cat.
While her location changed, her habits didn’t. In her culture, animals are traditionally kept outside. So she keeps her cat on the balcony, and every morning, she comes out to feed it and care for it before starting her day.
As you would when moving to a new place; one day she started looking around her home and saw that her neighbor's plants had darkened with many of their leaves now decorating the characterless ground. She thought to herself, “Oh my God. I wonder how I’d feel if my cat were to be this helpless. Well, you can’t anyway, can you? At least you can move around when mommy isn’t here. But plants can’t.” And so she went back inside her home, and came out with fresh water the plants had been daydreaming about for a while.
After a few days, while going through his morning routine, our friend saw that the neighbor's plants once again found their flamboyance. Their leaves seemed lit with the sunlight, and their inviting colors gave back life to the whole house. “Is he back?” He thought to himself. Unfortunately for his curiosity, it quickly came to a halt when he saw a lady feeding her cat and coming to the empty house with fresh water. “Hey” she said. “Are you new? It’s so nice to meet you in this desert! No people, and no water (she pointed a finger to the plants in the empty house )— you get what I mean? No? Anyway, I needed some time off from work, and heard this town is great to recharge. I wasn’t expecting to be missing human beings this soon though!”
The man, being his usual reserved self, smiled back with a few words to welcome her before looking back at the empty house, perhaps hoping to catch the neighbor’s shadow through the window. Again, his curiosity was stopped when the woman said “Ah, I was wondering about this place too. I saw those plants the other day and since no one’s around, I thought why not give them water every time I come out for my cat. At least she can move if I’m not here for some reason. But the plants can’t grow feet and start looking for water when they’re in a pot.”
For a moment, the man felt guilty for not reasoning the same way she does. Life had been hard on him, and for reasons yet unknown to us — he never minded more than his business. Human relationships being the mystery they are, combined with the suffering they create often force some of us to shut off. It wasn’t a reason to ignore the rest of the living beings on Earth, he thought. Many of them have done nothing wrong to us. Our human problems shouldn’t include them.
For years, he had been living in silence — ruminating on his complicated past. Others wronged him; he also made mistakes that still fill him with regrets. Where has this endless churning of emotions brought him to? Nowhere close to resolution, he thought for an instant. He won’t feel sorry for too long this time though. He now has an opportunity to take action, correct his approach to life and he will do it, however small the first steps may be.
The next day, as the lady went through her morning routines — she saw the man watering the missing neighbor's plants. “Hey!” She said, and “Hey there…” He replied, with half a smile on his face.
Maybe this awkward smile was the first step he needed to take?
