The Orchid Journal

My little brother is excellent at finding things. I remember when he was barely three years old and I had lost my hair bow. Looking everywhere and finding nothing but more frustration, I had turned to Brendan out of desperation and said, "I don't suppose you know where my bow is?" To my surprise, he understood me and cheerily replied, "Over dere". Pointing and walking over to a spot I had passed more than once, he picked up my bow and held it in the air. I was dumbfounded. Over the years, the scenario has played out multiple times. My almost daily question, "Has anyone seen my...?" is heard so often, my family is surprised I haven't lost my own brain yet. Still, my brother has proven himself an excellent finder. I often think that when God decided to give me a little brother, He must have said, "Hmmm, Laelia loses things frequently, I should make her new brother good at finding things". And so, Brendan was born. Now that he is al...

I was seven or eight years old when I realized that I was alive. Completely unaware of any looming revelation, I was sitting in the backseat of my family's long, blue station wagon that we nicknamed, “The Boat” because of its immense size. My parents joked that driving that huge station wagon was like maneuvering a cruise ship. With the ceiling fabric sagging like the skin of an elderly woman and the very cushioned blue seats, the inside of “The Boat” was reminiscent of my grandmother's lap, cozy, safe and warm. Sitting in the car and looking out the window was where I often did my best thinking. Waiting in the backseat of the silent car for my mom to come out of the house so we could go run some errands, I contentedly idled away my time by daydreaming. My mind was in deep thought as I contemplated the strange pine trees in our yard. The trunks were the longest and skinniest I had ever seen on a tree in my eight years of experience, and way at the top, beyond the reac...