Marigolds, Energy Vampires & Crippling Critics
Marigolds are commonly interplanted with other crops as the sacrificial lamb. The one that is willing to “take the bullet” so the other plants nearby it can thrive. Marigolds attract aphids away from other plants. Aphids are tiny bugs that love to eat dahlias, kale etc. If your plant is yellowing and has little pieces eaten out of it.. One word for ya: Aphids.
Marigolds are the people in your life who support you and want you to THRIVE. They love seeing you glow, they love seeing you win. They’re the girls on instagram that reach out and ask if they can buy my mugs for their sisters because they love highland cows and grew up with them. They are the women at Bayview Farm and Garden who are cheering me on when I buy bags of potting soil late on Friday night when my husband is out of the country for work because that’s my idea of a good time! They’re the friends at work who check in on me when I’m hiding and hyper-focused behind a computer screen and we take a lap around the building to feel the sun on our faces. They’re the funny and relatable girls on the “Dirt of Flowers” podcast. God I am so grateful for Marigolds.
In contrast, have you ever spent an afternoon with someone, and afterwards… you are absolutely emotionally drained. Totally need a battery re-charge. Everything you had planned with your spouse for that night, forget about it, it’ll have to happen another time, you need to lay down and do absolutely nothing for a while.
I didn’t start reflecting on this until I was much older and heard about energy vampires. These are the people in your life that quite literally, suck the limelight out of your life. The people who look at life with horror, fear, anxiety, doom. Lord help these people! All they can think about is how terrible everything is. Their boyfriend isn’t showing up for them, their job sucks, their roommates suck. Everyone has a low period, but for some people it becomes their personality! Well heck lady, break it off with that guy, find a new job and new roommates! The world is your oyster!
There’s another type of person that I can’t wait to not be around. A crippling critic. Someone who comes to your sunflower stand, smells your flowers you cut this morning and tells you they think they’re rotting. The woman who is judging you at your first farmer’s market for treating your bees for mites because she never did. My guess is these people had big dreams and never had the gonads to chase them. And heck, I wish them good luck, but keep it movin’ lady! I’ve got marigolds to enjoy!
The reason I’m writing about this and posting it to the live interwebs is because I want you to also weed out the energy vampires and crippling critics of the world and identify your marigolds when you go after your hopes and dreams. And lastly, I hope I get to be a marigold in your life.
I didn’t really identify these people in my life until I started listening to the “Dirt on Flowers” podcast recently recommended by @fabled.flora They have a really good episode on it, episode 121! This is where I learned about marigolds. You can listen to it on spotify. (And no, I am not getting paid to do this, I just genuinely really am enjoying writing and reflecting these days!)
