Blue Orchids

Today, my sister & I went to Home Depot for things for the house & to look at options for replacing the crumbling bathroom downstairs.  As we moved to the checkout counters, she stopped at a kiosk of orchids & I said I had never in all my years in the flower industry seen a blue orchid.  She said - it is your color.  Buy it.

 

Protesting, I said I could not spend that amount of money on an orchid.  Even a blue orchid.

Then she said:  Let’s find one with blooms.  (My sister is very stubborn).  

When we found one with blooms, she handed it to me & when we went through the check out line, she paid for it.

And I thought to myself, not for the first time:  Self, be very careful what you wish for in front of your baby sister.

The hue in the blue orchid  blooms is, of course, an illusion.  The new blooms will be white.  The blue has been introduced into the plant with a dye through its roots.  

Creating an artificial blue orchid, in my color.

I shudder to contemplate what this says about me. 

My sister suffers from no artificial manipulation or influence.  Everything she does for our family comes from the core of her soul.  Something entered her soul through its roots, but it was not a blue dye.

When I am alone with her, I feel as if I am in the presence of something I will never understand.  

The child who bit me, the woman who was my Lamaze partner for the birth of both of my sons, the woman who first held each of them,  the woman who let me take over family holidays & even when I turned one over to her, followed my shopping list & menu.

The woman who is still taking care of us all.

I love the blue orchid that will bring forth white blossoms.  

As I love my sister, a gift of wonder from above.  Who is always in my color.