The Sentient Lily

A while back we placed a large portion of waterlily root from our koi pond into the above ground water feature that we use as a quarantine for new or special attention fish. It never produced a flower, but it seemed to float around if not content then at least in whatever type of hibernation that a root stalk might go through for a better part of year. A couple weeks ago we noticed some significant root activity on one end of the tuber so we decided to chuck it back into the koi pond with the intention that we’d eventually get around to planting it when we had copious free time.

Even though this floating rhizome had been quite content to drift on the top of the water surface in the smaller water body, it surprised us that the next day it had sunk down the very bottom of the koi pond. There is some very fertile decomposing soil that collects on the liner at the bottom and pretty deep as well in order to protect the koi from most predictors. But this little lady rested her roots right in the mud and stood perfectly straight and tall near one of the air stones that help oxygenate the water from the bottom up.

Silly little girl, we thought. She’s going to try and put roots down in the deepest part of the pond. But since we didn’t have time to fetch her out with the big skimmer, we let her stay put where she landed. It wasn’t more than a week later that we noticed the live rootstock sent up a stem reaching stretching to the water surface. It was a tiny thin petiole with a single small floating pad. We were shocked that it was able to send a runner all that distance, as most lilies prefer shallow waters.

Over the next few days, she launched a few more delicate stems and for all intents it seemed she was enjoying her new home at the bottom of the pond. But this morning, when I went to see my water friends I noticed there was NO LILY at the bottom of the pond. I called the redneck over to ask if he’d moved her while I had been in bed the last many days, building up antibodies with my second Pfizer vaccine dose. And he said no and took a quick look around and saw that the living root had decided to float back up to the surface and over to a shallow ledge edge of the pond where it was ready to uncurl several new emerging pads.

We sat down for a moment as we contemplated what happened. Was it possible? Did this plant, after launching her first few floating pads to the water’s surface, realize that the depth she had chosen was in fact not optimal for her flowers to bloom? And upon realizing this was she able to LIFT HERSELF out of the mud and float until she found a better place?

There’s a lot to unpack there. And no doubt my meaning making mind has all sorts of stories about what may have happened or why. But the jewel inside the lotus (Om Mani Padme Hung) is one of the most powerful mantras and in it’s essence teaches us that
we all have
inside of us
the seed to transform.
Even when we are
deep in the muddy water.
When there appears
to be no path
to an easier place …
We can rise and rally
and once again
feel the sunlight
on our face.

I for one, needed that teaching today.