My training is in science, but I believe in signs.

I watch for them. I wait for them. I pray for them.

When we toured colleges with my daughter,

I wondered how we would know which one was right for her.

I liked all the places we went, but which one was the one?

In the last building on the tour of a college was a huge lobby with two giant pots of blooming Bird of Paradise plants.

That was it for me.  Of course my sign would be a flower.

That is a plant with a long history with my family.

When I was seven, my family lived in Santa Monica for a time. The courtyard of our apartment building had Birds of Paradise.  I was fascinated by them.

My dad’s mom had a huge pot of Birds of Paradise in her carport. I get my “flowerness” from both sides of my family tree.

I have a Strelitzia reginae. It has never bloomed.  Maybe it will now.

Will that be a sign, too?

Maybe it will just be in the right conditions to finally bloom,

like my daughter.

FLOWER