Children never forget, it seems. No, not at all.

This happened recently. I was visiting a place when I came across a Hoya twining vine… and it evoked deep moments of nostalgia.

My older brother kept one in the front lobby of our home when we were growing up. He tended it faithfully. He tied strings from the floor to the ceiling, and the vine found them. The plant’s long stem coiled upward, spiraling around each line. It stretched into new spaces.

Over time, the stems spread, and the leaves multiplied. The room transformed. The ceiling and the walls, even the corners… all became covered with bright living greenery.

All it needed was water and light. The rest came from its willingness to stretch.

That is what twining vines do. They do not grow by staying in one place. They grow by reaching, grasping, coiling, and ascending. They spread out.

I also grew up in a family of polyglots where everyone at home spoke at least three languages. But my grandfather set the bar so high. He spoke English, French, German, Russian, Czech, Hebrew, Swahili, Luganda, and Lutooro, all flowing from him with ease. And he spoke in proverbs, because as he told us, you do not truly know a language until you can speak its proverbs. That multilingual environment stretched my mind the way those strings stretched the growth of that Hoya twining vine.

What does all this lead to? I can hear some of you wonder.

Well, to this. Hang on, we might hit some turbulence here.

So… there are two major things people struggle with most in life: 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬. We instinctively fear instability, so we cling to comfort, to things we know for sure. The things we are not sure of, we let go. Underlying this is fear: fear of the unknown. Maybe even fear of failure.

We become afraid of what we know little about. So, we get comfortable with what we know. But then we stagnate. That is the problem. There is no growth there. People prefer comfort and stability. Yes, but the cost is that… staying in the same place doing the same thing suffocates growth. PERIOD.

We cannot be the plant that is afraid of reaching. We are the Hoya twining vine, remember that.

In Scripture, the man with one talent confessed to his master, “I was afraid.” Fear was the root of his stagnation. He buried what he had. He refused to stretch. He became the stagnant plant.

Fear is behind it all, and it inhibits those two things: change and new opportunities.

Consider Jesus, the one who even referred to Himself as the Vine. He stepped into the unknown, working through the night (even on the Sabbath), questioning the theology of the Pharisees and Sadducees, touching lepers, allowing a weeping prostitute to approach Him, overturning the money changers’ tables, moving fluidly through diverse roles as carpenter, teacher, healer, and Savior. Nothing about Him was stagnant. His life was stretch.

Consider this. We, as a nation, have DNA that accepts challenge. Fear is not in our genetic code. We are not afraid to dream. We are not afraid to stretch. We go where others dare not go. Kennedy captured it perfectly when he said, “We go to the moon because it is not easy.”

Consider human anatomy and physiology. As a Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation physician, I know this intimately. Healthy muscle growth requires stretch. Muscles that never stretch tighten, shorten, and threaten mobility of the body. Any normal adult who bicep curls the same twenty‑pound dumbbell for five years will never grow larger biceps. Why? The body acclimates very well, just like the mind. Comfort is the enemy of expansion.

To run a marathon, you stretch. Figuratively. Two miles, five miles, ten miles, fifteen miles, twenty‑six miles. You do not start at twenty‑six miles. You stretch. The twining vine principle applies here. Quite well.

Unstretched muscles tighten and shorten. Unstretched minds do the same. And comfort shrinks us while stretching expands us.

We refuse to be the stagnant plant. We choose to be the twining vine. That is the challenge I leave with you now… this day. Today.

Go ahead and do this. Step beyond the familiar, for safety without change is stagnation. Accept the challenges that lie ahead. We were not made to be still. Stretch. Add more weight to the dumbbell. Vary the movement of you. Refuse to stay in the same class forever. Learn a new language, it will not kill you. Taste new food. Your gastrointestinal tract will acclimate. Find someone who does not look like you and find out about him or her. You will live to see another day.

Go where comfort is pleading for you not to go, because that is where you begin to grow longer and better, like the twining vine you are.

I surmise that graduation is where destiny begins. And twining, like the vine, happens. Let us not fight it. Let us grow.

Until next time.

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Disclaimer: These reflections represent my personal views and interpretations. They do not reflect the official position, policy, or endorsement of any entity with which I am affiliated. I offer them solely in my capacity as a private citizen and writer.