Leaving Things Alone Beautifully

Contrary to what I had always believed before, orchids are not needy.  They can't be, or they won't survive me.  In fact, with very little soil required, and a bit of water about once a week, it could be said that the more you leave them alone, the more they have to offer.

I've been told our kitchen counter by the big window is a very good place for them, so perhaps that's why I am graced with clusters of blooms over and again in the cycle.  But that's the thing.  You have to be willing to let them be nothing for long periods of time.  To leave them alone.  Let them be kind of blah for a while.

Don't tell them I said so, but without the blooms, I kind of think orchids aren't that much to look at.  Okay, the leaves are a healthy dark waxy green, but they're also rather large in proportion to the pot.  Still, at least they don't have the borderline-hideous look of the roots.  I half expect a hostile alien to creep out from under the bark one day.  

And it's all I have to look at, sometimes for months on end.  

So I wait.

And then, one happy day, a little stem-start appears, reaching upward.  Something good is on its way.  I take a stick and clip the stem to encourage good posture.  

And then I wait some more.  Maybe I adjust the clip after a few days, as the stem grows.  But mostly, I do nothing.  Just let it do its thing.

Right now I'm enjoying this cheery clutch.  Helps to brighten against the dull winter days sulking just on the other side of the glass.  And I remember that this bit of happy comes to me only because of a learned waiting.  Because of the plant's reputation to do something wonderful again after a period of what looks like gnarly nothing, and my willingness to leave it alone until the time is right.

I am a doer by nature.  Wired to take action, lay out plans, write up strategies, have check lists and goals and objectives.  I love to put my brain and heart and hands to a task and see things come about in ways that benefit the world in the little ways I've been allowed to contribute, always in the context of a community dedicated to those same passions.

I also think much good gets done by doers.  I believe there's a lot that's actually my responsibility, our responsibility, collectively, to take action on.  That when good people stand back and do nothing, something evil can and usually does come and fill up the spaces.

And.

I have also seen, in this life-journey of six plus decades, that there are also a whole lot of things that only happen because you leave them alone.  That sometimes you just need to let something be un-beautiful for a while, before it's beauty makes itself known to you - all by itself.  

Here I resist the temptation to make a list.  Because what those things are for me may be different than what they are for you.  There's often a nuanced discernment required for what needs our concerted effort and what needs us to take our hands off entirely.

But I will say that one huge clue for me is that when something is entirely out of my control, I'd best not try to take control.  That may sound obvious, but believe me I've tried more times than I want to admit.  It doesn't work.  It only frustrates all of us involved.  It most certainly does more harm than good.  

As if I could shout at the dormant plant, pull on the stem, or open the orchid buds prematurely.  

No! Hands off lady!

Leave that one alone!

And just let it be what it is for a while.  

Even if I think it's not so pretty.

Even when what we're talking about might just be me.

"He has made everything beautiful in its time.

He has also set eternity in the human heart;

yet no one can fathom what God has done

from beginning to the end.'

Ecclesiastes 3:11