Introducing some plants into the office for greenery was spontaneous idea one Friday afternoon. $8 later a bonsai a foot high in simple green oval pot, a single stem variegated leafy plant and a shrub were added to a shared office room. As a new staff member the action was treated with distrust by colleagues; what was the meaning of my action? No one else had been so outrageous as to add their own plants!
Within weeks confetti of small dark leaves scattered around my computer. The bonsai was seriously unhappy! This well 
established, distinguished decoration out of living matter is struggling. A nude dry bonsai is no joke. No one can take the bonsai in, without wondering what the ….?, as almost all its wealth of greenery swirls in the fan’s breeze. Three remaining upper branches with leaves sat above spindly naked arms. Should I take it home into a cooler, airy environment? Clearly its unhappy in its new environment. What to do? Exit humbly or wait and see what happens. The distress had stopped two thirds along the bonsai or yet to die? Cruelty to the human spirit, to watch that shock of new environment onto the bonsai, that was already loved by so many in its short-term addition to the space.
A few more weeks later light green scatters over the lower branches. A miracle of growth! Seemingly arriving all at once after a weekend of its quiet without humans, the tiny sprouts indicate new life. The bonsai has rallied its spirit! Slowly slowly those shoots develop into small leaves. A different dilemma emerges, as the bonsai gains in confidence, the human need to constrain and consign some of those shoots to death; all in the name of keeping the bonsai in the elegant style previously created. Snipping some of the green shoots away so as to keep the shape, does no harm thankfully.
Joining a new space and creating a way to grow into the new environment can almost kill! Yet the wait for acclimatizing is worth it. The partial breaking of spirit, of almost giving up on settling in is on public display as also is the gaining of some equilibrium and tentatively setting forth with one’s own new green shoots of ideas; some shoots will be nipped away immediately all in the name of maintaining harmony while others will be allowed to flourish, contributing to the overall effect.
