In the recent past, life has been very hard on the old men I know, including my father and those of close friends. It’s such a dramatic cycle, I keep calling it No Country for Old Men. As sad a time this is for so many, it’s as natural as the different stages of a blooming orchid stalk.

A little over a month ago, my dear friend, Marissa Bridge, visited her father for the last time. Right after that, at ninety eight and a half years old, he left this world. He lived so long, Marissa never thought he would actually be gone.

She’s a painter and actively engaged in an ongoing series she calls The Journey: all different stages of one orchid plant. It symbolizes transitions in life, the passing of time: growth, maturity, and last but equally dynamic, decline.

With eyes on these paintings, and face to face with her, my pink heart blossomed. Honoring cycles of life with the orchid as a metaphor, it is her hope that future viewers will understand something about life just by looking at them.

Whether painting orchids or lilies, Marissa is painting herself, her beautiful life in flowers.