4 months ago, Maru and I went full-blown millennial and signed up for a terrarium building workshop.
A terrarium is a sealed glass container to keep small plants. They are a self-contained ecosystem, and a beautiful microcosm of our earth’s environment. By recycling their own air and water, they can survive with minimal care.
Maru and I each made our own, but 4 months on, the health of our terrariums are vastly different.
We followed the same instructions. We put in charcoal to absorb impurities, added pebbles for drainage, filled it with quality soil, and watered them with 10 light puffs from a spray bottle.
So why is Maru’s healthy, but mine looks like the setting for the next zombie apocalypse movie?
After some searching, we found our answer.
When transferring young plants from plastic pots into a terrarium, you need to place the roots at least 1 inch deep into the soil.
Maru followed this instruction (of course), and the roots of her plants grew healthily throughout the jar. I, on the other hand, didn’t press the roots in deep enough.
For the first two weeks, all was well in Dan Terrarium Land, but soon after, my plant’s leaves began to turn brown and wither. They weren’t able to absorb nutrients and water from the soil, and the decaying leaves triggered the moss and mould that have since taken over the jar.
When making a terrarium, you can do everything else right, but if the roots don’t take hold, all the other work is meaningless.
Reflecting on this experience got me thinking about a parallel: how we absorb what we read and learn.
Embarrassingly, despite reading a fair amount, I find myself forgetting a lot of it. It’s a constant wish of mine to retain more and forget less.
When we read at pace but fail to internalise or practice the learnings, we’re like a plant with shallow roots. Unable to absorb the nutrients required to grow.
As the late Stephen Covey once said, “To learn and not to do is really not to learn.”
My unhealthy terrarium has encouraged me to slow down. My learning journey isn’t a race. Rather, it should be deliberate and considered, with time consistently set aside to absorb and practice.