An everyday miracle

I'm in a sentimental mood today, folks, so here's a true story about an everyday miracle.

Last Friday evening, I was walking through the parking lot to pick up a few things at the grocery store when something caught my eye. A small plant was sitting all by itself on one of the yellow lines separating the parking spaces. There were no cars anywhere around it.

When I finished my shopping, the plant was still there. It was a Reiger Begonia according to the tag, which is warm-climate plant (think Florida or South Carolina) with beautiful glossy green leaves and masses of deep red or shocking pink flowers. In our neck of the woods, it is considered a houseplant or an annual (a plant that survives for one summer only) - a real domestic baby, in other words, completely unequipped to survive Ottawa's cold.

This particular specimen was in very sad shape, to say the least. The leaves were completely frozen - several actually shattered when I picked it up, and the soil in the pot was very cold, but not yet frozen. It had obviously been sitting there for some time.

I somehow doubted its rightful owner would turn up, and ... well ... to be honest, I felt sorry for it. I just hated to think of this harmless little plant -- brought out of its natural environment through no fault of its own -- sitting in a cold dark parking lot slowly freezing to death with no one to know or care, and probably getting run over by a honking great SUV or mini-van.

So I brought it home.

Bluntly, I didn't have much hope of actually saving it: as soon as it started to warm up, all of the begonia's leaves and most of its main stem turned (quite literally) to mush. Within a couple of hours, all that was left was a greeny-brown stick barely an inch long. At that point, I started thinking about giving it a decent burial. For some reason (I'm just a sucker for lost causes, I suppose), I brought it to work instead. [For the record, my office (i) gets a lot light; and (ii) is safe from our 5 delightful, but plant-munching, cats.]

For the past week, I've been watching this sad little green stick and hoping for the best. There was nothing I could do to help it survive, just cross my fingers that a little spark of whatever energy or spirit or whatever it is that drives all living things not to give up on life was still in there somewhere.

And, since this is a story about an everyday miracle, I'm sure you've already guessed that it was, and it is. Today, my little Reiger Begonia has started to sprout two new leaves - pale and tender and tiny still, but definitely growing.

Life sometimes astonishes me with its gifts.