TRANSCRIPT 🔗
WEBVTT
00:00:08.320 --> 00:00:08.640
Hi.
00:00:08.640 --> 00:00:10.400
Oh wait, hello.
00:00:10.400 --> 00:00:15.199
Hi, this is Jill Badonsky, and this is A Muse's Daydream.
00:00:15.199 --> 00:00:20.399
And I'm going to hand you over to Jilly Ann Badonsky.
00:00:20.399 --> 00:00:23.199
And we're we're both the same person, full disclosure.
00:00:23.199 --> 00:00:29.600
It's just that she talks with a a southern accent because uh she lived a while in Florida.
00:00:29.600 --> 00:00:31.440
She's going to talk about kudzu.
00:00:31.440 --> 00:00:40.640
Kudzu by Jilly Ann.
00:00:41.119 --> 00:00:46.159
Down here we don't so much as have kudzu as it has us.
00:00:46.159 --> 00:00:53.119
It's this vine, it looks like ivy, and once it gets started, it don't stop.
00:00:53.119 --> 00:01:03.679
I first noticed it crawling over the fence behind Aunt Darlene's house, moving with the slow confidence of something that has never been told no.
00:01:03.679 --> 00:01:04.480
No.
00:01:04.480 --> 00:01:10.799
It's evasive, people say, the way they might say has a strong personality.
00:01:10.799 --> 00:01:13.840
Right before that person ruins Thanksgiving.
00:01:13.840 --> 00:01:18.079
But honestly, what exactly is kudzu supposed to do?
00:01:18.079 --> 00:01:23.439
It's an enthusiastic plant here on assignment, doing the one thing it was built to do.
00:01:23.439 --> 00:01:24.400
Grow.
00:01:24.400 --> 00:01:29.200
So when it grows with its flair for drama, we act shocked.
00:01:29.200 --> 00:01:36.319
Oh no, we say as the kudzu eats the shed the birth bath and heads for the above ground pool.
00:01:36.319 --> 00:01:39.359
I personally respect its commitment.
00:01:39.359 --> 00:01:43.280
I wish I had more of that.
00:01:43.280 --> 00:01:52.319
It seems to me kudzu is doing what every self-help book has been yelling at us to do for years.
00:01:52.319 --> 00:01:55.359
Stop apologizing for your needs.
00:01:55.359 --> 00:02:03.040
Even if your needs include swallowing a 1997 Toyota Croyola and half a Baptist church.
00:02:03.040 --> 00:02:07.840
Well, some boundaries would be nice, but it's a plant on a mission.
00:02:07.840 --> 00:02:10.800
I once tried to grow basil.
00:02:10.800 --> 00:02:13.360
I whispered affirmations to it.
00:02:13.360 --> 00:02:15.680
I sang it John Denver songs.
00:02:15.680 --> 00:02:21.759
I bought it a nicer pot, thinking maybe it just needed better housing, like a millennial.
00:02:21.759 --> 00:02:28.479
And that basil died with the quiet dignity of something that clearly would have preferred to live in Florence.
00:02:28.479 --> 00:02:32.879
And that's Florence, Italy, not Florence, North Carolina.
00:02:32.879 --> 00:02:37.439
Kudzu, meanwhile, does not ask, is this too much?
00:02:37.439 --> 00:02:39.919
It asks, what else you got?
00:02:39.919 --> 00:02:47.199
Impressive confidence, maybe a little on the entitled side, but still unwavering.
00:02:47.199 --> 00:02:50.879
It's not, I'm just seeing how it goes.
00:02:50.879 --> 00:02:55.280
It's fully wholeheartedly doing the job it came here to do.
00:02:55.280 --> 00:02:57.199
And there's a lesson there.
00:02:57.199 --> 00:03:00.400
I'm not sure what it is.
00:03:00.400 --> 00:03:07.039
Maybe it's that it doesn't need a five-year plan or a vision board.
00:03:07.039 --> 00:03:09.439
It just jumps right in.
00:03:09.439 --> 00:03:11.120
It is the vision board.
00:03:11.120 --> 00:03:18.319
Most of us aren't in danger of becoming kudzu, we're barely parsley.
00:03:18.319 --> 00:03:21.599
We apologize to our own houseplants.
00:03:21.599 --> 00:03:34.080
We hesitate when we should be finding a new place to grow enthusiastically, inappropriately, with confidence that suggests we never read a single comment section or listen to people who don't get us.
00:03:34.080 --> 00:03:41.120
Now I'm not saying we should all go out and consume a tool shed or emotionally engulf a neighbor or friends.
00:03:41.120 --> 00:03:44.800
We don't want to sabotage, and there are rules and laws.
00:03:44.800 --> 00:03:54.319
But I am saying there's something about giving yourself a bit more room to be who you already are.
00:03:54.319 --> 00:03:58.639
Where can you branch out a little bit?
00:03:58.639 --> 00:04:00.400
Try branching out.
00:04:00.400 --> 00:04:06.000
We don't want a full takeover, not a botanical coup, just a little more space.
00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:10.000
Ask what else you got, life.
00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:28.720
Because maybe the point isn't to become invasive, maybe it's to become more alive in the direction you're already leaning or dreaming.
00:04:28.720 --> 00:04:31.920
Or scheming, sorry.
00:04:31.920 --> 00:04:44.079
Maybe it's sermon to the rest of us is do what you came here to do, even if it's just a little bit more, and try not to eat the whole neighborhood.
00:04:44.079 --> 00:04:54.000
This has been A Muses Daydream with Jilly Ann Badonsky.
00:04:54.000 --> 00:04:59.279
Grow safe out there, but uh let's take a small step.