A New Resilience: My Aloe Vera Continues to Persevere Despite It All

Last year, I wrote about my aloe vera and how it had been knocked off my balcony, pot shattering (twice); how it seemed to disappear for months after I failed to pot it again; and how I discovered it on the floor of my porch, under a table, somehow still alive despite being un-potted and un-watered for months.

When I moved into my new apartment, my aloe vera’s troubles seemed behind it, being safely potted and sitting in the corner of my new porch. But a new challenge has arisen.

Not long after moving in, I started to notice that the dirt in my pots were disturbed. Something had clearly been digging around, scattering the dirt all over the porch.

I didn’t know what creature was causing the mess, until I pointed out the situation to a neighbor who explained that it was likely the local criminal element.

Squirrels apparently make a habit of digging through the pots for a variety of reasons, because the soil is less compact. They may be hiding food or digging up the roots, or maybe they’re just curious.

The mess was the least annoying part for me. I was far more concerned about the damage this was doing to my poor, wonky aloe vera, which has endured far too much already. And it was clear the squirrels were not just digging, but were also damaging the roots.

Getting these cute little criminals to stay out of your planters can be difficult. My research on Reddit provided a number of possible solutions. Aromatics (mint, coffee grounds, etc.) are supposed to be good deterrents… sometimes. Cayenne and spices can also be deterrents, but also are painful to the squirrels (not my goal, I just want them to leave my aloe alone, not hurt them). Wire cages could prevent them from reaching the pots, but I didn’t want to deal with that for aesthetic reasons.

One person mentioned using rocks to keep the little criminals out. So, I bought 15 lbs of decorative rocks about 1-3 inches in size, which I hoped would be big enough to keep the squirrels out. And it worked… for about a week.

Not long after, the squirrels began turning over the rocks and churning them into the soil as they dug. So, back to the research.

My neighbor recommended some kind of plastic covering or mesh to keep them out. I found some circular mesh covers designed to sit on top of the soil and prevent any critters from digging. I cleared out the rocks and repotted the aloe (it’s root ball so much smaller than how it started out). I then placed the mesh covers on top of the soil and piled the rocks on top of that for extra protection.

A could of weeks later — and my aloe vera remains undisturbed. I’m hoping now it will be able to start to thrive, instead of just surviving.

I continue to view my aloe vera as a beacon of resilience, one I would like to emulate. This new year is tossing new fires onto an already burning world. The immense amount of terrible news often feels overwhelming, like there’s too much to even take in.

As the world continues to present its new troubling developments, we need to find new ways to be resilient. Maybe this involves exploring a new form of creativity, paying attention to your health more through exercise and diet, and delving into spirituality through meditation — all things I’ve personally been attempting to engage with more this year.

Or, more likely than not, resilience may require access to community. My aloe vera would have struggled against the onslaught of the digging squirrels alone, but found support through my efforts to keep the little deviants at bay.

Finding your community is powerful, bringing you in connection with folks who can help you stand up and who you can help in standing up. Or even just folks who can help you to commiserate when everything seems too hard.

As my aloe has shown me, it is possible to be resilient. It is possible to survive and find art and meaning and joy — even when the world is too much.

What I’ve Been Working On

I recently participated in the Global Game Jam at UC Davis, hosted by the Game Development & Arts Club. During the event, I joined two teams and worked on two projects:

• Best Face Forward, a Jackbox-style multiplayer game, in which the player assembles a face and a text response from the available features and words (for which I created the art assets)

• Thomas Was NOT Alone, an FMV dating sim, in which Thomas takes the player on an increasingly chaotic date (for which I co-wrote the script)

It was an amazing event, and I met a ton of fantastic people. A full recap can be found here.

I’m participating in the No ICE in Minnesota Bundle, which aims to raise funds for Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota (ILCM) in response to the deadly actions of ICE agents in the area. “ILCM provides free immigration legal representation to low-income immigrants and refugees in Minnesota and North Dakota. They also work to educate the community about immigration matters and advocates for public policies which respect the universal human rights of immigrants.”

The bundle includes more than 1,439 games and such, including Baba Is You, Whispers in the Walls, and more. It also includes my game, Bluebeard: An Interactive Fairy Tale.

I also completed a review of Stray (BlueTwelve Studio), a cute little cat game that’s full of horrors.

Good Reads

Madeleine Aggeler reminds us to start resting, because “there’s no gold medal in the stress Olympics”:

Thank you for reading and spending a little of your precious time with me! If you’d like to support my work, you can subscribe for free or, if you are a generous soul, you can buy me a coffee.

I make games! If you’re a game designer of developer looking for a writer or narrative designer, please check out my portfolio.

I also write poetry! Find my books here.