Hello, fellow readers,
I recently visited with Diana of the Hospice Grief Center in Newton. What gifts her wisdom, kindness, and the services of Hospice are. In the entry area is a beautiful tropical-looking plant with a nifty braided trunk that I asked her about, teasing that it looked suspect as a plant only legal for medicinal use in certain states. It’s a Money Tree, Pachira aquatic, and grows into a large tree in tropical and subtropical regions. As a house plant, it’s a small bonsai tree.
The Money Tree at Hospice
Diana shared the legend that a poor Taiwanese farmer first discovered the unusually attractive Money Tree growing in his field. He took it as a sign, dug it up, and brought it home to find it required very little care. The farmer decided to propagate and sell them at the market. They were a huge success and brought him his longed-for affluence, which is how the Money Tree became associated with wealth and prosperity. But life is much more than about money.
The number five suggests another theory about the meaning of the Money Tree. They typically have five trunks per plant, five leaves per trunk, and five lobes on each leaf. In Feng Shui, the ancient Asian art of arranging objects to generate a positive outcome, there are five elements: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. The Money Tree’s pattern of five is said to represent those elements, and placing one in the southeast corner of your home is recommended.
Diana professes not to have a green thumb, and I wholeheartedly disagree. The mother plant and the offshoot she potted are thriving, which speaks for itself. It also speaks for the nurturing gift she shares with folks like me. It speaks that Christmas is not about money or gifts. It’s about sharing the abundance of Love. By uniting in Love rather than feeding the frenzy of diversity, the world would be a Peaceful place. Merry Christmas to all!
Garden dilemmas? askmarystone@gmail.com
Merry Christmas to All, and to All, a Good Night!
