A GUIDE TO ORCHID-HUNTING

Here in England, June is the peak season for wild orchids. This year I have had the good fortune to go out orchid-hunting not very far from the village where I am living… and to find several I had never before seen in their natural environment.

To hunt* orchids, your mind needs to be calm but concentrated. It is preferable to have a certain level of knowledge about the flowers, at least in order to recognise them when you find them and, if possible, to distinguish between a typical habitat where they might grow and another where it makes no sense even to look for them.

*Use of the word hunting is not under any circumstances suggesting digging up or moving these plants; the only thing to be taken home from this experience is the joy of witnessing nature’s madness.

At the same time, you will need to maintain an open mind and a wide vision; if you focus too much on a specific objective, you might easily pass by another treasure without realising. This is why it is best to go with your heart dedicated simply to the attempt, knowing there might be much thereabouts to enrich your life even if you do not find a single orchid.

Next step: to take this advice and apply it when the moment comes to write the copy for my website, in other words when the moment comes to start defining what I can offer the world with HONEYWEAVERS… and how I expect to pursue this goal. It’s a challenge. However, just knowing that soon there will be an official website under the name of HONEYWEAVERS fills me with inspiration, and helps me to identify my goals and the why of what I do. And needlessly to say, I am so excited at the thought of showing the new website to the Honeyweaver community.

In the meantime, I’m sharing with you an example of the writing practice I mentioned in the last newsletter, written in ten minutes without pausing to think. I hope it might inspire you even just a little when you go out on your own orchid hunt.

First and foremost, remember why you love what you do.

Go down to the river, if necessary,

and stand on the banks where its swollen body twists and crashes down,

frothing, bubbling, smooth pouring,

whirlpools, spray-clouds.

Oh those shoals of silvery bubbles rising from the fury!

Look down into the frothing patterns to see therein why you love what you do.

Feel your mind spread out like a cup of water emptied in one go on the sand,

spread out like the sound of a wave pulling back down a sloping pebbled beach.

Walk out into the wilderness, into the almighty,

into that which has the power to vanquish you in moments,

and remember why you love what you do.

That’s not a battle fought and won forever now,

you will have to repeat this mission time and time again,

and rightly so.

The desert and the mountains and the ocean storms know:

you are small, and you are fickle.

What you love may change.

That’s fine.

You may always love, but forget why exactly.

That’s fine too.

Perspiring whirlpools will remind you why.

#HoneyWavers