Christmas Cactus

There was a time when going to an auction was my young family's main form of entertainment. We went to a lot of auctions. We generally did not buy a lot of stuff but we went often enough that a couple of the local auctioneers knew us by name and would greet us. Sometimes if the bidding was slow, they would call out to us and ask us to bid on something to get the ball rolling. It was a pleasant, low cost way of spending our Saturdays. A few years after we bought our house (at an auction), one of the local auctioneers built an auction barn just down the road from us. Those auctions were usually on Friday evenings. I would frequently just pop down, check what was there and then if there was nothing interesting come home. It was a chance to slow down from the work week, say hi to neighbours, do a bit of complaining about the weather and still be home in good time.

One Friday, during a particularly traumatic period in my life, my daughter, my son and I went down to that auction barn - just to see what was there. I had no intention of buying anything - my life was just far too chaotic to even think about adding anything else to the mix. However one of the first items offered was a Christmas Cactus. No one seemed to want it, so my daughter bid on it and got it. Why? I will never know. I think it was the first thing she ever bought at an auction, she was not known then (or now) for having either a passion for growing things or for that matter a particularly green thumb. But we took it home with us and for the last twenty-five or so years it has been part of every home I have lived in.

The plant has, in fact taken on an unusual and unexplainable significance. Parts of it have travelled three times across the country as I have moved back and forth between B.C. and Ontario, a little clipping has flown with me from Sudbury to Nanaimo (I knew the main plant would freeze when travelling in a moving truck in the middle of winter), it has died and been reborn through clippings or sheer luck more times than I can count as neither my daughter or I are one of those people who have a special relationship with plants. But still it lives - with one plant in Sudbury and another in Duncan. It will always have a special place in my memory - as a symbol of a difficult time that that the kids and I got through together and has a reminder that we all have the capacity to grow, in spite of difficult circumstances - if we can only hang in there just a little bit longer.

But this Christmas Cactus has for me, seldom flowered. It may have only produced blooms for me three or four times in 25 years (my daughter's portion has done a bit better). This year it has flowered and it is quite glorious.

I am happy.