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The other day, I walked by the only plant still breathing in my house. I’ve had a lot of casualties over the years. Seriously, I just gave away a cactus a month ago because I can’t continue to subject living plants to the inevitable suffering they will endure at the Rash House. But I digress…the other day, I walked by my plant.

He was looking rough. We have this fun little relationship (not so fun for him) where I get distracted by life and forget to water him for weeks. Until one day *that day* when I walk by and remember that I suck and run an emergency glass of water over to his struggling life form. One glass. One beautiful cylinder of H2O and he perks right up. Crisis averted. Everyone is still alive. And we move on with our lives, until we repeat the process in another couple of weeks…One glass. That’s all it takes.

Here’s the thing — I am easily distracted. When I get busy with work or when I have some personal demons hanging out more regularly, I lose sight of pretty much everything else except for my own concerns. I forget to say hello as much, I throw my headphones in, I don’t play with Ginger (my amazing ball of love, completely made of barking and fur — for newcomers)…I forget to water the people and things that I love. I forget to stop and fill their glass because I’m too worried about the amount sitting in mine.

But it doesn’t take much. It doesn’t take too much of our busy days to offer something to the people who surround us. We should never be so distracted that we forget to smile at the people that we pass in the halls at work. We should never pack our schedules so tightly that we forget to check on our friends just to make sure everything is going okay. We should never get comfortable with the excuse of a hectic life, we’re just never too busy to give a little good.

If we would just slow down for five minutes to say “hello” or “thank you” or “I really like your taste in socks”…(it’s a compliment, make it your own)…maybe we could change the entire course of someone’s day. And maybe that is the one day that needed that small boost of good. Maybe that was the morning when nothing was going right — we’ve all had them. It only takes a few seconds of kindness to add some value.

The point is this: I shouldn’t wait until my plant is almost dead before I water it. (In any area of my life — my family, my friends, my job —and hey, even myself)

… And maybe I should buy more fake plants.