Asarum Europaeum

Last weeks I also have been struggling with one of my plants! :-) Many
years ago I took from a holiday in the Black Forest in Germany a small
plant Asarum Europaeum (Mans ear) with me to Holland.
I found it in the shadow in the forest on the top of a hill, next to a
ruin of a castle. It is clear in my mind exactly where and how I found
it. A strong memory to this place and time! The holiday was nice and
special, and so was this little plant!
I had it in my garden for several year, where I put it under a Ginkgo
tree, dry in and with shadow, just as I found it. There on this very
spot it was growing nicely, and extending it's area in a subtle way.
When we moved to an other house, four years ago I dug it out of the
ground carefully and planted it in the new garden on a similar place.
But in the garden of my present house, the soil is too wet for it. So it
was suffering and decreasing every year, until only two leaves left last
autumn. So I put it into a pot, and carefully treated it in my home
during winter, and now, this week, new leaved are emerging to the
plant.
It is small, but has nice dark green "ear shaped" leaves. The flowers
are almost not visible, so it is humble :-) and it is poisoned as well
:-( But I like to keep it as a memory. Now it's growing again and that
gives a good feeling.
This plant is a bit special because it is humble, and still persistent.
It has flowers, but does not boast about it.
It 'listens' to the earth, and survives.
Something we can learn from!!!

http://www.botanypictures.com/plantimages/asarum%20europaeum%2004%20(mansoor).JPG

The Zahir

Yesterday I finished my book of Paulo Coelho, titled "The Zahir" It took
me some time to read it, because it was a busy time, and only on some
free moments I could read. Besides: sometimes I had to read back to get
in line again to the story.
The story struck my rather well!! It concerns a person who has his
life in good order (he thinks), and then suddenly his wife disappears
and he can't find her anymore. He does not know why she left and he
loves her very much, and therefore she becomes his Zahir.
A Zahir is "something" from Arabic language and it means so much as the "thing", or "subject", or "person" who is always in someones mind, always present, always visible, impossible to remove from once's consciousness. You could say: it becomes an obsession. He loves her so much, and he is sure that he can not live without her.
In this book is described how he looks back on his life, and how he
tries to analyze what went wrong. He becomes obsessive in searching for her, to restore what was in previous time. It is also very painful for him. At some time the Zahir seems to disappear, but than he meets the man who knows where she is. He feels very lonely and
tries to find al kind of ways to discover her, and it even seems that
she likes others more then him, because they have privileges he doesn't
get!! It's really sad and destructive!!
Later in the book you can join him in his struggle to discover himself
again, and how he has to learn to let her go.
Only on the moment when he finds her back again in the steppes of
Kazakhstan, then he realize that she is her own entity, that she does
not 'belong' to him or opposite. Then they accept each other, respect
each other and love each other again, but in a different way.
I also can be obsessive to 'things' I want to keep close to me. So
there are several 'Zahirs' in my life as well.
My sincere wish is to find peace with them as well!!!