Hey guys... I just found this site by searching for "pruning" information on Jade Trees. This is my first real plant and it has come into my life at a very very needy time. I wanted to share my story with the community.

Back in early March I had gone to the Farmers Market here in Dallas. A really cool lil outdoor garden right in the middle of downtown Dallas! As I was going through one of the walk in areas, I saw for the first time a 5 year old (and well trimmed) jade tree on sale for 147 dollars. I lot of the price was the fancy pot. Anyways... I was immediately blown away by the plant but had no time or interest in caring for anything living but myself. I am a 25 yr. old bachelor doing fashion/ commercial photography as a sole source of income... and my life gets pretty "playboy" from time to time.

Shortly after that happened I had someone come into my life that turned everything I thought I knew upside down and inside out! And I dont say that lightly at all! There are so many things I could go into about this person... but I dont want to cheese this up too much and come off as one of the "crazy single/ cat people". I am quite the person to party and be social... but this girl changed everything and it was complete magic!

We instantly fell in love and lived a life of incredible passion... we were best friends and lovers in every since of the word. Everything about us matched! In fact in the last 5 days we spent together I decided to take her to that garden and when we got there I left her side while she looked around with a friend, to go find the tree to see if it was still there and then I could show it to her.

After five minutes of looking, with absolutely no avail... I suddenly hear her calling me, "Phoenix? Hey come check this out!" I get back to where she is and there is the plant. She found it on her own, not even knowing what it was I was looking for! She turned to me, "Isn't this the most beautiful plant you have ever seen?" I just smiled. It was perfect... just like our lives together. We liked everything EXACTLY the same... this was one of many things we had in common but some how... it just meant the world to me. We even had the same taste in plants!

Well... like all tragedies, our relationship came to an end and against our will. This part is a lil too personal, but I promise you... if we could have stayed together... we would have. After three weeks of not talking to her she called me on the phone. We talked for hours... and at the end of the conversation she told me she was pregnant with my child and that she had kept it from me... but she lost it.

My heart stopped. I had been married before and really wanted a kid, but was told I had too low of a count to produce with out further medical assistance. And here I was in love for the first time in my life and my body says "yes... with her we will", and like that... it is over. After her visit to the clinic and many tears I asked her what she would have named our child, and she said "Mona" for the first name. I asked if I could pick the middle name, to which she said "of course" and I picked "jade" for the tree and the symbolic hold it had in our lives. She started to cry and said "that is what I wanted".

Every day I talk to my daughter in heaven... it reminds me to do what I can to try my best to get to heaven myself. I tell her that I hope I am making her proud... and then I went to buy a baby Jade as a symbol. I am also getting a tattoo of a Jade tree on my body. My whole life has kinda morphed. I am daily reminded of what I want out of life... and what it is going to take to get there.

Anyways... my life looks completely different now and a lot of it has taken the form (symbolically) of the jade tree. So i thought i would share this with the community. I hope it touches you as living it has touched me.

Here is my tree... I am going to try to post it in here.

[img]http://a974.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/99/l_76b389fa25c58b770edd85151eace19d.jpg[/img]

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