When my dear Julia suffered a recurrence, we went to Queens Medical Center in Honolulu. She’d been a Mayo Consultant and ironically her oncologist, Dr. Loui, was Mayo trained. In a month there she never saw a resident: even on Mother’s Day, after visiting his own mother, despite being told to take the day off.

One of the many helpful diversions he encouraged was to walk around the little hospital garden as he’d seen a green jade vine (Strongylodon macrobotrys) blooming. We marveled at a single small blossom in an unseen exotic emerald color.

Years later, a friend and neighbor, Susan, gave me some vine seeds. After several failed attempts, a few sprouted.  I built a bamboo rack from my own plants and plugged the little shoots at the base of a kukui tree (state tree of Hawai’i) and watched the vines pullulate up the tree truck and throughout the canopy. (Upper left photo shows vine base today.)

Some years later, working below the tree I looked up and was startled by a single grand green bloom- turns out pollinated by bats and not easily grown- so after the obligatory iPhone snap to share, I documented with an actual camera.

Today, more than twenty gorgeous blooms are hanging pendulum like throughout the tree: some better seen in morning light, some in evening. I’m unable to capture this resplendence in a single photo and cutting blossoms and arranging a studio shot doesn’t feel honorable. I’m offering this experience via an array, plus the early photo.

 Abundance is not an asset, materially or financially, if it goes unappreciated or unused.