How could it stay a bad day when an Opuntia “Boxing Gloves” shows up on the back doorstep?

I was having one of those less than fabulous days; you know the ones where you wish you could have just stayed in bed? As is typical in these situations there were many small things that added up to an overwhelming feeling of gloom. I won’t lie; the weather figured large. The sunny days were about to come to an abrupt end and the rains were predicted to return in force. I was blue.

As I eased my car into its usual parking spot at the end of our drive my eyes fixed upon our back doorstep. And there, in the sun, were a couple of new plants! All of a sudden the day was looking up…

There was no note but I deducted a small clue. The box and tissue around the Opuntia looked familiar, like what I typically got when buying a plant or flowers from our neighborhood New Seasons Market. Uhm let’s have a look…

Opuntia “Boxing Gloves”…oh ya!

Just look at it, tough!

And look at this Euphorbia tirucalli, it’s obviously been loved by someone, but what is it doing here, on my back doorstep?

I followed up on my hunch, based on the New Seasons clue, and tracked the plants to my neighbor Bridget (she’s a floral dept mgr there). Sure enough she confessed she was the “Planta Claus.” The Opuntia was a gift from her; the Euphorbia was from a coworker who asked that she pass it on to me knowing I would care for it over the cold, wet and dark winter months ahead. The irony was not lost on me, as I had just declared in a post a couple of days before that I thought I might let my Euphorbia tirucalli freeze and die, rather than dig it up and overwinter it. Shortly after that post went up I read Alan’s ode to his beautiful Fire Sticks on Its Not Work It’s Gardening...and now this! The universe is obviously telling me something. I’ll be digging and over wintering mine now too, how could I not? I’ve been inspired by kindness.