I'm not much of an interior designer. And I'm not much of a botanist or garden either.
But I do really like the Arabica coffee pot plant sitting on my desk.
It makes a difference.
Firstly, it looks nice. It has nice glossy leaves, they're a nice deep green, and it sits in a white pot with a kind of broad ripple texture.
Secondly, it grows. Week to week, I can see the steady growth of new leaves. I can see the new green shoots, and the older brown branches (they're really twigs). The earlier leaves are small, but some of the new ones are much bigger, at least three times as long.
Thirdly, it responds. As I said, I'm not much of a gardener. So I forget to water it. And it tells me I've been negligent by becoming extremely limp and generally looking sad. And when I pour a cup of of water into it, it's back in shape by the end of the day.
Fourthly (if that's a word), it reminds me of the economics and people involved in bringing me my morning cup of coffee.
My coffee plant is a reminder of outside world. It's a world that is beautiful, both natural and created. It's a world that is constantly changing, constantly in flux, ever shifting. It's a world that is relational, that requires input from me, and who I can affect with both my action and inaction. And it's a world filled with other people, people who have dreams, families, work, favourite drinks and places they live.
We all live somewhere different. But all our different somewhere's are on the one same planet. So lets appreciate the beauty, flow with change, choose our actions wisely, and empower each other.