Life Energy: Frog and Toad Are Friends

When I first came to work with my friend Sarah, she asked me if I had any thoughts on further decorating her already established office. I looked around and said, "I think we need some life energy in here. Something green or living or growing." And so, we went off to the nursery for plants and to the pet store for fish.

I have to confess that if I could, I'd make the whole back of our office into a pond with turtles, fish, frogs, snails, etc., etc. But until that estactically happy day comes, I'm content with what we have. Having living things in our massage space adds something positive that I'm not always sure I can define, but that we and our clients definitely sense. Now, you might argue that plants and creatures can be expensive. True, but you can control that somewhat by making wise choices. For example, going to a nursery for plants, describing your space, and getting advice can improve the possibility that your choice of a plant will be able to live a long, cheap, and happy life with you. "Lucky bamboo," for example, is cheap, pretty, strong, and grows well in only water with little light.

Fish require even more restraint. I turn into a five-year-old if I'm not careful: "Ooooh, pretty colors, pretty colors, I want that one!!" Sarah and I learned a lot from our betas Fishybuns (who is still happily making bubble nests) and The Kraken (who we lost after a fight with finrot). If I had to make a fist recommendation for a massage therapy fish, I'd say choose a single, relatively low-care fish (goldfish, beta, etc.) and put him in a 2-3 gallon tank with a whisper filter and light. Add a heater, some water conditioner, and a few pieces of lucky bamboo and you're set. They don't eat much, so your intial outlay for food, equipment, and fish should be between $50-60.

My favorite life energy right now comes from our African dwarf frogs, Frog and Toad. Their somewhat unimaginative names are acutally from one of my favorite childhood books, Frog and Toad Are Friends. African dwarf frogs are often sold in tiny little bowls, but keep them like this, and they can go from social to cannabalistic, which is not very healing to observe )-: Keep them in the same environment as the fish, with a tiny terra cotta pot for them to hide in when they feel the need. They can be hysterically funny. They exhibit these blank, taciturn expressions, and sometimes float in such still, odd positions that they seem dead until they spring to life, kicking and playing and splaying themselves against the glass.

Having living things in our office has seemed to solidfy our sense of belonging to the massage space, not just to the clients. We talk to the plants and the creatures, move them around, feed them. We stare at them dreamily when we pause from paperwork, and our clients' faces soften when they bend close to observe a new shoot or an acrobatic turn. Life energy is a good thing. If it feels right to you, choose a plant or a creature, start small, and see if it helps your massage grow more green too.