While just everybody else seems to have gone on holiday to enjoy the fresh breeze of the ocean in the summer, let us do the opposite for a good thought, & focus on the beauty of the heat.
Yes, that’s right, desert is not just all dried out dirt & dust! There’s all sorts of wonders we wouldn’t expect.

Although stiff & still like a rock, a cactus is a living plant, made to make it through extreme heat conditions. With their great functional organisms to retain water over long period of time, succulents even grow beauty in various forms & shapes. And that’s still not all to it: Once in a while, they blossom with beautiful flowers – in the midst of a desert! How astonishing and gorgeous is that!?!

Alright alright, we all know that! Not only our friends from Arizona. I know. But has it ever occurred to you, that there have been times, when here in central Europe nobody knew of a cactus to exist at all ?

It’s thanks to explorers on endeavors who brought the first back home. To demonstrate proof of the curio they encountered – else nobody would have ever believed what they reported. To show worthy of having been sent out on expedition, and certainly also to show it off as a trophy of succeeding in the strenuous endeavor far far from home. That includes extraordinary travel conditions long before cars, let alone airplanes.
Yes, it was both at the same time: First of all the fascination and curiosity which had been their calling and driver to go on adventure and being part to discovery of quaint oddities. On the other hand they took pride and proof in having become an explorer and an expert in meeting with the unexpected, and dealing w/ the unknown, even taking care of unknown creatures such as a cactus and other fabulous succulents, trying to keep it alive and make it grow back home.

That’s their contribution to what we call “the measuring of the world”, thus to what we know today.
Picture “living library”. Conserved to observe, research, learn, archive. To share. As an arcane curiosity, &/ a trophy, to help make it common sense eventually.
Norh of the Alps it was Conrad Gessner, a polymath in the 16th century in Zürich, Switzerland, to be the first cultivator of succulents!

These days, we may not even notice a cactus, overlook it in the hectic dynamic of our lives. Other times &/ situations we might consider such acanthous plant an ordinary granny green, not being aware of it’s inherent true beauty once admired in old passed days at the first courts of wealthy aristocrats and in gardens of academics making the efforts to dedicate themselves to the then exotic extravagant, building dignified succulent collections, transcribing it even into encyclopedia what has ended in today’s garden plot and become a dust collector on deserted window boards.

What has been popularized over the centuries as painted by Carl Spitzweg in «Der Kaktusfreund» rarely shows popular these days. Right? Surprise surprise, if you’re ready to look around, you’ll notice that this year first time after years and years and years, the Interior Design Industry has somehow picked up the deserted topic and delights us w/ some refreshing patterns and staging settings.

Go explore. Following your fascination is great fun. To take it further to make it meaningful contributions, it needs you to focus & be aware in the moment, so you are able to actually see, recognize, what’s unknown and worthy to shed a light on. To invest time & energy, as we would call it today.
This is how Endeavours & Adventures can lead to huge learnts, even help society grow & shift to a whole new level! That’s what makes it famous &/ contribute to represent the leadership and wisdom.

Having ‘nice‘ is already having it more beautiful.
Gardening in our days however is not just a setting of ornamental flowers for nicety. There is much more to harvest from. It’s growing with researched knowledge & expertise, &/ leveraging all sorts of wonders &/ ways to apply and improve our daily life!
Today, in times of innovation pressuring all over us, we know how we sometimes are pushed from just enjoying the beauty to gain more and even learn from plants to reconstruct proven functionality, & use it in new fields for other supplies for our life.
Did you know all this lead to precious hydrating and thus even anti aging beauty cremes today? Even more astonishing: they found out its leaves are very healthy detox for diabetes people!
Wow – truly wonderful what you can get out of the heat &/of curiosity to go adventure unknown desert grounds!

In my understanding, Lifestyle &/ Leadership is the art of balancing it all, and find the proper way how best grow your curiosity into  convenient commodity.

There’s a cute Exhibition in the Succulent Collection in Zürich which has clicked my understanding how being curious drives you to be fascinated by odd curiosity stuff, whereas some people just do not connect to that and just like to simply see a cactus as an easy to please green in front of their house
Go see it [up to April 2017] – it’s great wandering &/ wondering around, even on rainy days. It’s home of one of the largest & most important specialized succulent collections.

Succulent &/ Cactus are all but dead dust & dirt! They are the good!, not the bad or the ugly!
Go suck it in w/ all your senses – indulge in its poetic fragrance, nourish on the luxurious beauty and taste of the fig fruit! & even it’s leaves were found out to be very healing detox for people dealing w/ Diabetes!

> Go have a try & taste…