That darned orchid
I'm just an onion with free will
I guess this is part 2.
This orchid has been blooming for a bloomin’ long time. So long that I’m actually wondering if it’s real. It is! AND, it even has two new spikes coming up. Gee whiz. I wish I could say I’m doing something special. Nope. Plants are amazing. They just do their thing. Look around and you’ll see them growing all over without any human assistance. Sometimes I think it’s just when we interfere that there are problems. Get out of the way, really. In life that can be the most important thing to learn how to do.
That onion? Yes, I’m tempted to get a pot. Put it in soil. Try to get a full stalk and a lovely onion bloom. Tempted. But so far that greenery isn’t even limpy. It’s full strength and growing. Patience…
My students? Yes. I try to get them started and get out of the way. Give them safety. Give them a project. Step aside. Steer occasionally and as needed. They are energetic sponges. Give them something interesting to do and it will take care of itself. Boring task - you’ll have to get mad and enforce rules and do discipline and all that. No fun for anyone.
Thursday we had some weirdness at school. All the reading teachers attended a special reading PD Thursday and Friday. No school Friday - no problem. Thursday morning we still had normal school but not many teachers. This meant I was assigned 3rd grade for the morning. An interesting, dramatic group. The group with soap opera tales and “he said” “she said” “she hurt my feelings” “She hurt my feelings first”. When they heard on Wednesday that I would be their sub they apparently proclaimed out loud, “don’t make him mad!” When the teacher told me about it she added, “I wish they were worried about making me mad.” and I thought, they haven’t even seen me mad. Hmm?
The day was amazingly uneventful. We got everything done. No one got in trouble (not even me). There was only one soap opera comment. “She called me rude.” “yeah, but you called me rude first” “yeah, but that wasn’t today”... and then they had tears and apologized to each other and we were good to go.
And then track from 12:30 - 1:30. 39 middle schoolers have signed up this year. That’s a lot. Some years I’ve had a total of 14. Our school has a total of about 85 middle school students so it’s a pretty big percentage. It’s a bit chaotic but it is turning into a hard working group already. Normally there are a couple so far back on our runs that it interferes with everyone else’s ability to do anything. In middle school you can’t just let them run off on their own. Normally this means waiting and waiting as the last ones stagger back. Not much waiting this year. And a proud moment. A girl that ran cross country in 2024 as her first sport ever and came in dead last in every race is running track. Thursday at the end of practice she came in at the back of the first group of kids - like top 15. I mentioned it to her and she hadn’t even noticed. To see that kind growth warms my cold, frozen (and apparently sometimes “mad”) heart. awwww.
The hummingbirds are visiting the cotton supply. The grass in the park below my apartment is long and green. Townsend warblers are warbling in the oaks. Spring is lovely and it does give me an extra step.
Orchids.
Not all orchids are as amazing as those special ones we buy at the store… or farmer’s markets. Or at least, not as amazing on the surface. Some actually grow in the wild! OH MY! It’s true. One day years ago Katie and I were hiking at the stairs above Veteran’s park and there was a sign. It said something about an endangered orchid species that grows there and to be careful not to step on it. Yadon’s Piperia… I would have just moved on. But Katie… nope. She looked it up. Did research. We went back when it was supposed to bloom and found it. It’s pretty much only on the Monterey Peninsula. Like… that’s it. In the world. We started looking for it in the Monterey Pine forests in the area and found it in George Washington Park, Del Monte Forest and in a small park up in Prunedale. Katie posted about it on her Nature site (it’s still up!) and she even connected with an Orchid guy that wanted to come see it. So we showed him around and he got pictures for his massive orchid photo library. Not sure if you can tell, but each bloom is smaller than your pinky fingernail with dozens of blooms on each spike. If you look close (check her site for better pictures) the blooms are amazing. Absolutely amazing.
Last night in my post I went down a dark path exploring where our minds can take us and how it can impact our lives. This orchid. Katie’s site. Examples of fabulous things a powerful mind in pursuit of something can do.
