Desert Plants

The desert is a harsh environment, with extreme temperatures – deadly heat by day, freezing cold by night – making survival difficult.  Water is scarce and there is little shelter –no shade to provide protection from a relentless sun.  With little humidity in the air, solar radiation is increased.  For most plants, survival would be impossible.  However, desert plants have found a way to survive, even with little water and sunlight, and amidst radiation so extreme most plants would perish.

Many people are raised in harsh environments.  Some children have had little nurturing and love –akin to the water needed by plants.  While sunlight and heat are necessary for photosynthesis, too much can burn and kill.  The sunlight that plants need to grow, thrive and make their food is like unto adversity and resistance people need to gain strength and mature.  Too much can destroy.  The right amount promotes health.

What happens to children raised in harsh environments, denied love and who have adversity heaped upon them, with no shelter or shade in sight?  Many perish.  Many die from the hopelessness of not being loved.  Many despair from the weariness and never-ending discouragement of problem after problem, in the absence of love, joy, encouragement or hope.   Many are neglected – akin to the freezing nocturnal temperatures of the desert night, and many are relentlessly abused – akin to the unforgiving and relentless desert sun, from which no protection or shade can be found.

What happens to these souls, who are denied human love, comfort and nourishment – denied shelter, protection and hope for a better future?  Many give up.  But some don’t.

How do the abused and tortured souls who survive manage where so many die?  They learn to cope – in much the same way that desert plants learn to cope and survive.  What do you do when you are raised with no love?  You learn to hoard the little love you might find along the way, and draw into yourself, until the next rare rainshower of love appears.  Desert plants have fewer leaves and branches, and thus conserve precious moisture.  They might be seen to be reaching out less, because they cannot afford to waste what water they do have.  Some abused souls do the same – they cannot afford to reach out as they do not have the energy, it was never available to them.  They cannot take a chance reaching out when it costs so much to do so.

Some plants go dormant when no water is available.  Some people shut down, and awaken only when it is safe, or when they are able to do so.

Another thought in regard to plants, and expectations:  Do we plant a cactus and expect to see a flourishing oak tree?  If a child is born into abuse and neglect, can that child ever expect to experience the shelter and shade of a loving family?  Probably most will not.  But if they find a way to survive, they will have something the oak tree never has never had, never needed and never will:  the ability to survive in harsh and deadly climates, where others shrivel and die.

Let those who come from oak trees try to appreciate and understand those who come from desert climates.  Those who have always had love, nurturing and protection of family cannot hope to empathize with those who have never had those things. 

Let those who come from the desert understand that it is not their fault that they were born where resources were scarce. They did nothing wrong and did not deserve the neglect and abuse they were given. 

Let the desert plants be seen as what they are – magnificent survivors, who have made a life for themselves where most would not have survived.