Orchids have a few essential requirements to grow well. They need the right amount of light, a moist environment, and no extreme temperature variations. Please don’t water them too much, as this may cause root rot and they actually do better with less watering. Orchids should bloom at least once a year, but can be encouraged to bloom more frequently. Fertilizing and maintaining the plant material will also be of benefit. Some orchids are easier than others to grow. Following these essential details along with a little luck, your orchids should thrive and provide you with beautiful blooms.

Humans, like orchids, have a few basic essential needs in order to survive. We all need food, water and air, but many of us would not blossom like an orchid without love, companionship, financial support, shelter, and clothing. These are obviously not all the requirements each of us need, they are varied and refined, just like the many varieties of orchids. Of course there are many more essential needs that can be added to the list, but I am more interested in how challenging and revealing this list is, especially during these current times we are living. This universal period of withdrawal from what has been our normal has shown us how relative and shifting needs are for each of us. Slowing down and remaining within our homes either alone or with friends or family members, we have had more time without the usual daily distractions. Many of us settled into self-reflection. Some people I heard were actually busier because they were at home with family and also working from home, but for many of us it has given us the space to recognize what is valuable in our lives. It also has given us the opportunity to appreciate the freedoms to do what we had been doing before the crisis. Through this reflection, we may discover that what was important and essential in our lives, may not be the same today as before the crisis began. It has given us the opportunity to stop and smell the roses, notice the sky, the birds, to spend more time with our loved ones, take walks and remember what we had forgotten and to simply notice things that we were too busy to notice before. Many of us have reached out to one another, reestablishing connections to friends and family. In this quest to fill the empty space of solitude, many of us have used ZOOM, online video conferencing, and spent way more time on social media. This shows us how essential the “other” is to our mental, emotional, and psychological well-being. We do not fair well alone. We do not fair well without social engagements. Distancing is not ideal for our happiness.

During this unprecedented time that I will call “The Age of Covid” the term “ESSENTIAL” is one of those key words we have heard daily. Only the essential workers are allowed to work such nurses, doctors and health-care workers. Those labeled “non-essential” had to stop doing what they were doing, work from home or simply close their businesses. Non-essentials were no longer essential to societies well-being and quite possibly could be a danger due to the risk of spreading Covid-19. Even our parks, so essential for a nourishing walk, became non-essential for a short period of time for the same reason.

It is not personal, but is sure could feel that way to many of us. We were essential to the economy, to one another, to ourselves and suddenly, someone, somehow decided that we were no longer essential contributors to society, but could actually be a danger to ourselves and others. It was essential that we stay apart. That we stay within. That we stay covered. And by doing that, we will flatten the curve.

Who decided what was essential? Our government leaders? People we voted for? A higher power?

Protesters started marching in response, not to the current crisis, but during the crisis. The real question is, “What is the crisis?” Before the crisis people marched for causes, to protest, to send a message to those in power. This downtime allowed us to really look at inequities in our society. It gave us more time to make a statement, to march and to say, these lives matter and are ESSENTIAL. People are dying because of biases, prejudice, racism and bad police behavior. People are dying because of a virus invisible to the naked eye and there are people who dispute its existence arguing that it is against their ESSENTIAL rights to wear a simple mask. Yet, they too are dying. We all have the right to die, no matter what color, creed, religion, race, belief, stubbornness or whatever.

Each of us is deciding on what is essential these days. Suddenly toilet paper, lysol cleaner and N95-masks became so essential that these items were in short supply. People hoarded and prices increased for many of these essential items such as hand sanitizer. The essential keeps changing. What was essential one day, may not be the next. One might argue voting is essential this November 3. As we continue to march, the divisions in the country are becoming more marked.

My question is, with all these essential issues and lives at stake, are orchids essential? Would You or I remain living with or without a white bloomed orchid? Of course we would, but would we be happy?

At the beginning of this crisis, my business, essential for my clients needs, suddenly became non-essential. I closed down with the decision to reopen out of my hands, but in the hands of those voted into leadership. I had to distance myself and spend a lot of unforeseen time alone with my thoughts, my cat and my orchids. As you are aware I have a love for plants. I paint and draw them. They inspire me. I have a few orchids at home and also at my office. At the beginning of the Covid-19 shutdown, one of my orchids, clueless to the crisis at hand, began growing a long extended stem with many buds beginning to emerge on it. I watched it daily keeping track of each opening bud. With the time I now had, I could witness the amazing transformation until is eventually blossomed into a cascading waterfall of beautiful white blooms accented with just a touch of yellow in the center. I have been staring at this white orchid waterfall for 3-4 months now. The flowers have not dried or dropped off yet! I am so curious about these plants, I never know when they are going to bloom. I try my best to give them their essential needs, but sometimes it is just plain luck or maybe there is something more going on that I am not aware of. I am sure it doesn’t care about the current crisis. Maybe it is thinking about its survival and by becoming more beautiful showing off its beautiful white flowers, it knows that I will give it more attention and provide for it. Another theory is it feels my anxiety over the crisis and is blooming to make me smile and forget. Maybe, maybe not, but I continue to ask myself if this white orchid is essential? Should I paint it? Does it send a message if I paint it? Does it matter if I paint it? Does anyone care if I paint it? Should I make the flowers black instead of white because of Black Lives Matter? Should I write protest messages inside the flowers? Should I make ugly marks over the top?

I don’t know if it can be categorized into essential. Ultimately, there are things in this world that just are, neither essential nor non-essential or it simply depends on your perspective. This white orchid is incredibly beautiful and it miraculously bloomed before my eyes. Trader Joes’s sells lots of orchids and flowers, so there must be a market for these plants. I do know that beauty and nature is healing. During this time painting this white orchid was cathartic for me. It was a meditation and I became peaceful. It helped me forget for a moment the times we are living. I enjoyed falling into the blossom’s details, shadows, contrasts and contours. It doesn’t matter if it is essential or not to the government, society or anyone else. The results I received from painting this orchid are essential to my well-being and also an image that others will hopefully find beautiful and distract them from all the essential bullshit out there in the world.

Reach out if you are interested in this original painting or a digital archived print. I would love to hear from you!