Has it ever happened that you put everything on hold because something that you yearned for all your life finally seemed so nigh? Something that you wanted with all your heart; your dream come true moment.  The promises, the plans seemed so real that you were willing to put everything at stake to make it happen. Your present revolved around the possibilities and assurances of that optimistic future. Everything, big or small, that didn’t fit into that plan is set aside.

But the plans come undone, the promises turn out to be hollow, an empty dream after all. For the one who made those promises didn’t mean it after all. It could be the promise of a great love, a great career or a business venture. Mismatch of expectations, different perspectives or just not living up to their part of the deal, whatever it maybe, it throws our lives in a turmoil – our confidence hits an all-time low, we scrutinize ourselves minutely and of course find ourselves to be very faulty beings, there’s self-doubt, questioning and not to forget the wallowing self-pity that we drown ourselves in. All, because we put out trust on a wrong person!

Unfortunately, bestowing trust on someone especially when my heart is involved, has always been a tricky affair for me. Though my life has been thrown out of gear many times, and I like to think that I have matured with passing years and experience, this time it caught me unawares. I fell hard, I couldn’t get up, I cried while watching romcoms – yeah, the usual!

I dragged myself up though and carried on with life, the mature me skillfully masking the upheaval within. Then one day, during my casual visit to the nursery I noticed flowering cacti. I always wanted cacti, but then I didn’t want to add to my garden thinking that I would soon leave to pursue bigger dreams. I promptly, picked up a few beautiful, thorny, flowering cacti to add to my lone bunny ears cactus.

Some believe cacti bring bad luck. According to Vaastu and Feng Shui you should not keep cacti in your living room. For me, cacti are the most beautiful, resilient plant, that grow in the toughest conditions and bloom. So I got them home, repotted them and watched them flower. They don’t need much, occasional water and a lot of sunlight, so I placed them in my balcony.

Every morning, as I sip coffee in my balcony garden in my new fun coffee mug (another purchase that I had postponed), I feel like a flowering cactus. No matter what life throws at me I will bloom, keep your distance if you can’t handle my thorns!