Beautiful

This is a Fairy Slipper Orchid (Calypso bulbosa), also known as a Calypso Orchid, or a Venus Slipper Orchid. It’s tiny:

They grow plentifully along the path I walk every day.  They’ve been blooming since I started taking my walks, but I never get tired of looking at them.

They’re even beautiful when they begin to fade, growing more pale and translucent as they droop:

It is, apparently, the only species in its genus, but it is found all over the world. In spite of its expansive territory, however, its considered endangered or threatened. The primary reason for this status is that this tiny orchid is dependent on its relationship with a specific soil fungi. When dug up and transplanted, it dies. It is a creature of place, of partnership; tear it from its home and its other half, and it can’t survive.

Doing a bit of research on the Fairy Slipper, I came across this thought provoking piece by William R. Stimson, likening the orchid’s dependence on its fungal counterpart to our dependence on our connection with spirit. Funny that I found it, because I was thinking some similar thoughts as I read about the plant. Thinking about how connection is so essential, and how far wrong everything goes when we forget our connection to All That Is. Thinking that maybe its silly to believe that independence is anything but an illusion.

(Say hi to the wee little spider to the right of the blossom.) We are all dependent on something. The best we can do is to choose who, or what, we will depend on most.

This is a good thing, if you ask me. Beauty happens when we understand that we need each other.