I don’t know a lot about orchids; only that I love them. They grow plentifully here on Kaua’i and I often received them as gifts.

I once had a gardener expert tell me that  he never kept his orchids. Once they bloomed, he just just got rid of them, because it was easier to just replace them and most of the time they didn’t come back to bloom anyway.

As for me, I just never throw away my orchids or tie them to trees as some people do, I just keep them and continue to nurture them with no direct sunlight and easy on the water. Well, I have found that my orchids do bloom again even though sometimes it might take them up to a year. The one in this picture was one of the only ones I felt I should throw away because she’d been with me over three years and never gave a blossom. The last few weeks, she suddenly began to bloom.

She got me thinking about dreams and how easily we can give up on them. We have a dream or an idea to do something wonderful, a passion that stirs within us. We try it for a while. Sometimes, we even give a lot to it. Sometimes, we give so much that we become obsessed with it. However, finally, after all that struggle and trying, we grow weary. We just put it aside or hide it in our hearts saying we’re done with it. “It just wasn’t meant to be.”

What I know, is like my orchid, that dream is always there waiting to bloom. We cannot prod it, or push it or give it a specific amount of years to appear or demand that we have it now. What we can do instead is just keep it watered with our consciousness and light it with our love. If it is truly our dream, we will be faithful to it. We can do what is ours to do, and always move forward.

However, then there is always a gestation period. The philosopher, mystic and writer, Judge Thomas Troward, would call it the “Law of Growth.” There is a time for everything to come forth in the most perfect way at the right time for us. I trust the Law of Growth in all my affairs, and I give thanks to my orchid friend who reminded me of it this morning.

Love and Aloha,

Rev. Rita