In a lonely corner, on a high ledge, against a white wall in my house, stands tall a blooming blue orchid. Whether the orchid is really blue or made to be so is unknown to me at the moment. It’s housed in a badly hand-painted ceramic pot and supported by a tall black stick. The orchid towers above everything else in the room, a wild contrast to the wooden cabinets. It is the first your eye will travel to when you step into a mismatched living room of a two-bedroom apartment somewhere in the Lebanese mountains. The flower is a sight to see, striking in its height and alluring in color.  In a room of objects, it is an object to note.

The disappointing thing we know about orchids, however, is that they are rarely ever in bloom, for on an opposite ledge lie 3 square pots each carrying a bundle of dark green leaves of which an empty black stick protrudes outwards and up. There is no flower.

Are they then still considered orchids? When you look them up on your search engine, you see a flower; every picture is of a flower, and not one is of the sole leaves. And simply put, it is because that is what makes it what it is. The bloom.

This particular blue orchid was a Mother’s Day present from my sister to our mother. It is important for us to note that when the orchids fall to the ground, they will still remain a mother’s day gift. When its presence diminishes, the fact remains that that lump of leaves is at some point in the future and was at some point in the past, a tall, blue, towering orchid. It never stops being so.

And what a funny thing. An apple tree also never stops being an apple tree when apples are not in season.

Another thing for us to note, the leaves and the long stem that holds up the blossom, whether that be in our tall blue orchid or our imagined apple tree, are stronger and significantly healthier when they do NOT carry their blossoms. For the orchid now droops forward to the front, the blossoms are beautiful but heavy. Pulling it slightly down and then further so, until they are let go. Only in the act of letting go does the orchid return to its healthy state.

The beauty disappears. And then the sunlight and the water are essential to coax it back into a beautiful state.

And so, my beautiful orchids, I hope you understand now that you are strongest when you are resting. You stand taller when you let go of your pursuits every once in a while and water yourself. Allow yourself to bathe in the sunlight before you begin creating again. Let these states pass again and again ,and do not mourn your once beautiful, colorful presence, for it will return again when it's ready. You never stopped being what you are, even when you existed differently.