Talofa Friends,
In a recent Substack note, I shared a close-up photo of an orchid flower alongside a reminder that something beautiful is happening every day. I bought that orchid from Trader Joe’s back in the fall of 2023, in preparation for our wedding. Aunty Paula was with me, visiting from Aotearoa New Zealand, my birthland. The orchid was displayed during our wedding reception and came home to live with us afterward. The blooms lasted for 3 more months before the petals faded and fell away.
Orchids have always intimated me. My mother and aunties collected them, teaching me they needed just the right amount of water. Not too much, not too little. Just right. A Goldilocks plant if there ever was one.
As an adult, I’ve had orchids of my own—some that died and others that, after blooming, left behind big green leaves and rotted roots never to flower again. I was hopeful for a different fate for our wedding orchid, so I made a watering plan.
Gwen Jorgenson is a US Olympic triathlete who I admire for her dedicated process. She won the gold medal (a first for the US!) at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, and since then has dedicated herself to the marathon before returning to triathlon in 2023. I’ve spent a lot of time over the years learning from her YouTube channel where she vlogs her detail-oriented approach to life and sport. For Gwen, every detail matters from high-quality nutrition to proper hydration, sleep hygiene and quality family time, to stretching before and after hard efforts, and processing experiences and thoughts through journaling and productive self-talk. She gives attention to the tiny details that together make for a greater, stronger whole. She was also tending to an orchid around the time I was making a plan for mine. A year prior she posted a picture on Instagram of an orchid plant with just leaves that she was watering in hopes that it would bloom again. Around the time I was nursing mine, she posted another picture of the orchid in full bloom!
We had a sweet interaction celebrating her orchid, and she clued me into her watering schedule, which was once a week. Of course, disruptions came up, and her plant went 2-3 weeks without water, but she did her best to stick to the weekly watering.
I decided Friday would be my watering day and I used the handy 2 oz measuring cup that came with the orchid. Just about every Friday for a year I watered that orchid trusting the water amount was just right. Of course, there would be a week here and there that I’d forget, but the following Friday I made sure to pick back up.
Over the year, I learned to communicate with that plant. One month, the edges of the leaves turned yellow and I worried I was giving it too much water so I skipped a couple weeks. Then the yellow faded away, the roots grew long, and new stems began to shoot out. The weekly watering continued. I also turned the pot to let sunshine reach all its parts. Slowly buds began to form on those stems, one after the other, and last week the first bud bloomed.
The bloom isn’t luck.
The bloom isn’t linear.
It is the outcome of a relationship. In exchange for my time and attention, the orchid has given me hope, an opportunity to be patient and persistent, and the beauty and celebration of its blooms in response to my efforts.
While a planned routine doesn’t guarantee a desired outcome, the routine itself is a checkpoint for progress and a deposit of effort and belief that things will improve along the way.
What do you want to “water” in the coming weeks?
What could use your routine attention?
<3 Eva
LOOKING FORWARD TO
Learning basic French with Easy French and brushing up on my Italian with Easy Italian to help me converse with locals on our hike around the Alps later this year
Volunteering for the Mt. Mitchell Heartbreaker 50mile/55km race this March. Last year I helped run an aid station and this year I hope to get some mountain miles in course marking. Check out this short video of the race celebrating the amazing WNC trail community with a little cameo of yours truly :-)
Sheet mulching new garden beds in preparation for Spring planting
"If you lose the spirit of repetition, your practice will become quite difficult." - Shunryu Suzuki
Paid Subscriber Bonus: Worksheets!
I am grateful for everyone here supporting this space and my writing practice. For those of you who have chosen to be paid subscribers (thank you!!), I plan to offer a monthly themed planning worksheet for you moving forward. This will be something you can easily doodle in your journal or on a napkin, whatever you have, to support you and your goals. I’ll draw up the worksheet in my notebook to share with you— something real and tangible in my life that I'll snap a picture of so it can be real and tangible in yours too. It may be very helpful, it may be silly, and just an opportunity to laugh and find levity in the moment you are in. Whatever it is for you, I hope it makes you feel good about where you are and hopeful about the paths forward.
I welcome your feedback and suggestions as this offering evolves!
The theme of this month’s worksheet is ~hydration~