Survival Lessons From My Beautiful Hibiscus Tree

Three Tips To Move From Tragedy To Restoration

I have a beautiful hibiscus tree in my backyard that daily delivers an abundance of the prettiest flowers. These flowers open in the morning and fall off at night, with even greater numbers waiting to take their place the next day. I stop counting the new blossoms after 100. It is my living, stunning metaphor of abundance.

But it almost died.

During a particularly cold winter snap on the Treasure Coast of Florida (almost an oxymoron) my hibiscus tree lost all its leaves. And there was more carnage. At the same time, my tile roof was being cleaned with a Clorox solution that sprayed onto and ran into (from gutters and leader) the soil around the tree. My beautiful hibiscus tree was shocked to bare limbs. No leaves, no flowers, no buds–only withered branches. Was it on life support or already dead?

A vibrant garden with blooming pink and white flowers in front of a house.
My Beautiful Hibiscus Tree

But it survived to be the beautiful tree of today and it daily serves as a life-lesson about what to do when what appears to be tragedy strikes.

Water. Fertilize. Wait.

The first call to action was to water. I had to leach the poisonous chemical out of the soil and away from the roots of the tree.

The second action was to fertilize, to feed the tree with the nutrients it would need to rebuild itself.

And the third action was inaction: to patiently wait. The beauty of nature is that it is self-healing. As long as the tree was not dealt a death blow it would heal itself in time.

There are many tragic events in life and some may require immediate action. But, there are many events that appear to be tragic but which can be managed with the simple formula of water, fertilize, and wait.

  • Water: remove the toxins out of your life.
  • Fertilize: nourish your, body, mind, and spirit to provide the means of regeneration.
  • Wait: wait for the miracle of life to rebuild, in its own time, what is damaged.

Pray for discernment and, above all, look beyond the commonplace for a remedy; discover the living waters of faith, feast on the Word of God, and tarry (remain in place) to let God heal you in His own time.