It was good to see old friends again.
I had known it already, but still—
they were, each of them, good.
You spoke about the unfairness of the world—
why some are given so much—wealth, ability—
while others are left with so little;
how those who have seem only to gain more,
and those without fall further behind,
the divide widening without end.
It might have sounded like resentment.
But that isn’t what I heard.
What I heard was expectation—
a reaching toward God.
A quiet insistence that He still holds this world,
and within that, something like a plea.
Orchids, they say, must be watered sparingly.
Only when they are nearly parched
do they release their deepest fragrance.
Why am I so thirsty?
Why do I feel so lacking?
Why do I feel so poor?
Perhaps we are orchids.
Perhaps this thirst—
this dryness we would rather escape,
this desert we might well call suffering—
is given because there is a flower in us yet to bloom,
because we are meant to carry
a deeper fragrance.
“The grace is sufficient.“
And so we are allowed to thirst—
even to the edge of it—
not without reason,
but because of what we are becoming.
I was happy to see my friends this time.
In sharing our burdens,
we came to understand one another more deeply.
May we each live as orchids in this world,
giving off a quiet, enduring fragrance.
With support, with encouragement, with love,
I send this to you—
until the day
when the world is filled
with the fragrance.