Just cut off the dead leaves

About 4 years ago, one of my Kappa sisters gave me a bamboo plant. I told myself that if I could keep it alive, I would be ready to have kids. Why? Because I have successfully almost killed every other plant I have owned, and I figured that it would be quite pitiful if I couldn't maintain a BAMBOO plant.

I'd been doing pretty well with it until last Christmas. We were gone for a couple of weeks and I didn't water it. I don't think I watered it for a month because I was so busy. So there were brown leaves growing out of it. Well...they weren't really growing because the leaves were dead.

I was ready to just let it die.

But I learned from my mom - the gardener - that as long as there were green leaves and the stalks were still alive, all I had to do was cut off the dead leaves and the plant would be fine.

So that's what I did. I cut off the dead leaves. And it's fine.

I was so discouraged by all the brown leaves that I didn't even acknowledge the life still left in my plant. I was totally gonna give up on it. How sad.

Lesson learned: Don't focus on what's going wrong...look for everything that's going right...because it's not over 'til it's over. That's exactly what my bamboo taught me.

Thanks, little bamboo. You've got some years left in you yet. Then maybe I'll upgrade to herbs...hehe =)