(via Our Crazy Boys)

Today’s fast feng shui tip is all about the cactus and why it should be outdoors and in low-traffic areas where it can do the job nature intended it to do: protect itself and its environment.

(via)

My feng tip today begins with a little tale from my nature-loving life.  Several years ago- 4 to be exact- I had a fabulous cactus arrangement on my outdoor patio on the third floor of a building in Los Feliz.  My patio was huge, but it was a high traffic area, so it might as well have been inside.  So, one lazy, hot afternoon I watered all of the blooming cactus and dusted off their pots. I washed my hands of the dirt and went to take a nap.  When I woke up, I had about 50 small, spindly spikes beneath and actually in my left eye. After a night in the emergency room and the next day sitting for hours in an optometrist’s office having spines plucked from my eye, I realized that the spines of cactus sprinkled undetected onto my arm, lodged themselves into me, and gracefully transferred to my eyeball as I took a nap.

Bottom line: cactus are meant to protect themselves to survive.  They are very dangerous to pets, to kids and to adults alike as indoor plants. My own cactus looked innocuous– but obviously it wasn’t, and I am a very cautious person!  Cactus can be an amazing way to create a protective barrier in front of a home symbolically when planted in a no-traffic area. I personally do not recommend them inside homes, ever, and if you choose to have them, that’s your choice.  Three people have asked me if they should put a big cactus arrangement in their bathroom or living room and I told them this story.

All maligning aside, if you respect their boundaries, cactus are so gorgeous, especially in bloom!  xoxo Dana