Any flower/plant fanatics out there? What's your favorite? Succulents or Flowers? Well let's start with understanding the maintenance of both. Succulents come in all different cute sizes and types. They're a beauty all on their own. Succulents don't require very much nourishment. Matter of fact, depending on the time of the year, you either water when the soil is dry which is typically advized during the winters. They are known as the easy to please houseguests and require minimal effort. Also depending on some of the conditions of where the succulent is "flourishing" it can be required to be watered as infrequently as once a month. Now flowers and other plants on the other hand require a little more maintainence. Some require more sun than others whereas too much sun can be fatal. Some are a little trickier and even need a bit of fertilization or special soil and their own special foods in order to flourish. Regardless flowers and succulents have a different makeup from one another in regards to the maintainence that is required to keep them alive and healthy.
So how does this relate to how people can be succulents or flowers? Well think about those who are closest to you. Who are those within your life whether they be family, friends, spouses, colleagues, signficant others even pets, that simply require you to put in a little more effort in order to maintain the bond. The perfect example I can come up with is my mom and dad. My dad is a succulent, he doesn't require an overload of affection but just a enough, nothing too major and he's the happiest man in the world. I can NOT call his phone to say hi but while I'm on the phone with my mom, him and I passing messages of hi's and I love you 's through my mom is enough for him. Even when I do call my dad, that man doesn't stay on the phone for too long to chit chat lol compared to my mom and I lol. My mom other the other hand is a flower. It makes her feel good and she thrives when she's watered with love from us and other members of our family. She loves phone calls and gets sad when I come home for the weekends and have to leave to go home which is only an hour away. Matter of fact, the idea that I will be leaving to pursue my doctorate makes her tearfully proud of me, however me leaving also feels like the equivalent to her getting watered every other week with occasional sunlight. She loves when you think of her randomly and birthdays and holidays are major to her! She's always surrounded by friends and family and always has friends over, quite different from my succulent dad lol. It's not to say he doesn't do any of this, but he's a succulent remember? He doesn't require as much care and watering. Do you see the comparison here?
I have a few friends that are opposite like this as well. My very nonchalant friend is the sweetest thing but homegirl doesn't need alot of watering. Why? because she's a succulent. I can check in on her once a week or every other week and she's just as cheerful and content. And then I have other friends who if they don't hear from me within 3 days, they're sending a search party out for me lol. Either way different special people within my life simply require different levels of care in order for our bond to last. There is nothing wrong with that so long as I am aware and acknowledge that about them, I am in turn able to care for them and be there for them. To be clear, it's not to say that flowers are NEEDY in any kind of way, they just require certain boundairies and levels of care, just like the Succulent in its own way.
So with that being said, take time today to be mindful of those who are closest to you and the ways in which they like to be watered and cared for. Take time to understand their boundairies and things that they value as well as why that is so. The point being is this...If I'm typically a succulent connesieur and I decide to take a chance and plant flowers. I'm not going to say well "All I know is how to care for my succulents, they don't require very much, I'm not sure I can care for these flowers and keep them growing by giving them what THEY need" What am I going to do instead? Ask friends who own flowersand have experience and research as well as pay attention to what my flowers need, because if I dont, like flowers left in a hot car on a summer day for too long they will wilt. Flowers aren't made like Succulents and Succulents aren't made like flowers, they each require something different and even different amounts of love, care, and watering....just like people.