My new book is now here 🙂 and this work…one of beauty, goodness and excellence, began in many ways over a decade ago, when my eyes began to tune more carefully to the ordinary beauty of others and the evanescent wonder in my own backyard.
Every June, for just under two weeks, our lawn is lit from grass to sky with hundreds and hundreds of fireflies. At just about 9pm when night cascades down like a blackout curtain, for a few moments, the trees are lit with light.
The flies dance and burn and spin and spiral and it always appeared to me, for no good reason at all, that they had been sent to tell us something…a message in a bottle if you will, or a sign from another system. This, now, seems fantastical, and yet still I don’t quite want to give my theory up for there is magic here and goodwill, I am certain, and an invitation to see the light and be the light.
I don’t know the science behind their luminescence, nor do I want to understand the chemistry of it all. It is enough to have been gifted their presence. It is enough to have been given a respite from the news of the day and to be with wonder.
“Beauty will save the world,” wrote Dostoevsky, and though none will ever know exactly what he meant by this line in his novel, The Idiot, I do know this: Beauty heals. It calms. It inspires. It reminds us that this day, and the next might be worth living.
This is one of the ideas I explore in my new book, The Generous Exchange: How Appreciation of Beauty, Goodness and Excellence Restores Us and Our World. I am thrilled to bring this work to you…as it integrates so much of what I have learned in my 60+ plus year journey of facing darkness while holding the light. In it I offer reflections on the positive impact of beauty, moral beauty (also known as goodness) and excellence, on our health, our resilience, our happiness and our sense of mattering in our world.
And…because beauty and goodness are generative…as we become more present to their presence in our lives, as we open our hearts and minds more often to the gifts of the planet and of each other, we become more actively engaged in a cycle of positive exchange with the world. We become better citizens and more active stewards of the planet, its species and each other.
This is the exchange I want to prioritize.
This is the commerce that will ensure our survival.
And so I invite you to notice the light around you. To see and elevate beauty and goodness. To share their tales. And, if inspired, to consider taking a look at my book, with a hope that it may restore you and ignite a corner of your living, like a torch on a summer evening.
You can find it here at Amazon:
Or here at Barnes and Noble:
And until the fireflies come again, may we all see, truly see, the sparks within ourselves and in so so many others.
With love,
Maria
