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Shrinking Lotuses

This story about the evolution of snow lotuses started a different train of thought. About how experiences in our lives shrink or expand our minds. How siblings grow up to be completely unlike each other though they were raised equal by the parents and in identical circumstances.

A bamboo shoot in my living room that has traveled twelve hundred miles with me in the recent past, is far from dead but sprouts no new leaves. Hope has perhaps been deficient in my home lately. The struggle to live and root is more predominant as evinced by the dense growth of roots in my plant.

Maybe we pick up cues from all forms of consciousness around us - the plant from me and I from the plant. J wants to go to the bookstore and I take her there just to please her. I end up pleasing myself even more. I read, she plays, she laughs with joy. We share a Harry Potter inspired berry drink and some pound cake. She wants to sample every book out there and does not have the patience for me to finish reading any one. The magic of Aladdin's cave is at work on J at a bookstore.

An adorable little toddler with a pink bow in her hair walks up and pries my book away from me. She does not know to talk yet but she seems to say "See the world around you. Turn outward and not inward. Play with me and J. These are the moments to live and die for. Reading can wait until later" The positive forces around me don't let me shrink as I would otherwise would and for that I feel utterly grateful.

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