During these past few months in quarantine, I have been working on my green thumb. According to my mother, I have always had a green thumb and before the quarantine, I had three plants in my apartment. Two cacti, and a poinsettia that I have had for about 3 years now. Since March, I have added a snake plant, a pink spotted plant, and a philodendron. Watering them, and pruning them has given me something to do and fulfills my desire to nurture. I had a phone consultation with the company I bought my snake plant from and one of the tips they gave me was to repot my plant. It’s a large snake plant, and to grow to its full potential it would need more room. They suggested an 8 to 10-inch planter. As I’ve repotted almost all my plants, the thought that maybe I need to be repotted occurred to me.

When we repot a plant, we are giving them the chance to grow. They can grow in their current pot, but they will never reach the potential they could because their growth has been stunted. I think a lot of us live in environments where we are comfortable, but we are not growing to our full potential. So even though we are achieving and making new strides, we need to shift our environment to truly grow into the person we were meant to be.

Repotting for humans, might not be as easy as changing your current home but it allows us the opportunity to reevaluate what is working for you and what isn’t? This time spent in my apartment during quarantine has allowed me the opportunity to look at what changes I need to make in my life, and it’s also helped me to realize that the only thing holding me back is myself. Without the distractions of people around me and outside voices, I have been able to find for myself the things that make me feel alive. What brings me joy and what brings me pain. Who and what have I wanted in my life during a pandemic? You cannot grow if you are carrying things that you were meant to let go of.  Maybe you need a new job, or you need to cut off some friends in your life. Maybe you need to end a relationship to find what you are looking for. Maybe you need to put yourself out there and stretch your branches, so to speak. Only you know the ways in which you need to be repotted, only you know where you need to be pruned.

My last thought is not to sell yourself too short. When I was told my snake plant would need an 8 to 10-inch planter, and I looked them up I realized this was a big planter. If left to my own devices, I would not have purchased such a large planter and my snake plant’s growth would have been dwarfed. How many times do we squash our dreams because we are fearful that they are too big for us? We shrink ourselves to fit the spaces that are too small for us because we doubt that we could achieve more. I am a firm believer that we are our own worst enemies. We are not what people believe about us, but who God says we are and who we believe that we are.

I just repotted most of my plants this week, and I am already seeing them stretching out to fill the additional space that they’ve been given. Reader, I hope you take these words and fill up the space you’ve been given. Don’t be afraid to outgrow your circumstances, it just means there’s so much more left for you to achieve!