050 Wait for the Rain
Hey Resurrection Plant, in a long drought you dry up and curl into a brown ball, looking lifeless. After one good rain, you open up green again.
How long can we hold on until the rain?
How long can you hold on until the rain?
On a rocky hillside in the dry season, small brown balls of curled, crisp fronds sit in the cracks. They look dead.
Then the monsoon comes. Within a day or so, the same plants have opened into flat, bright green rosettes.
What really happens
The resurrection plant can dry out almost completely in a drought and curl up tight.
When rain returns, it soaks up water, unfolds and turns green again. Scientists call this desiccation tolerance.
How we know: Desiccation tolerance in Selaginella bryopteris has been studied by plant scientists in India.
The turn
Some seasons drain us until we feel lifeless.
The resurrection plant does not fight the drought. It curls up, holds on, and waits for the rain.
Three takeaways
- Looking finished is not the same as being finished.
- Sometimes surviving is the work.
- When the rain comes, open.
Curl up if you must. Just don't let go.
There is something infinitely healing in these repeated refrains of nature — the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.