Every June fireflies carpet the field adjacent to our yard. Just as the night sky truly deepens to dark, at about 9pm, the trees and the wildflower fields become illuminated with hundreds of the tiny insects, covering the grasses, the lowest bushes and the highest of branches; a cyclone of light. Their appearance has become an annual summer delight and a reminder of the cycle of life, death, life. A firefly lives, on average, about two months and so the sparkle (or swarm) of flies we see each summer are of a new generation…descendents of what had been alive. They appear for only a week or so, and unlike my younger self, I have no interest in capturing them in a jar. More than anything I feel a sense of gratitude and promise…and in return wish for them nothing but sustanence for their short living.
Resilience…recovery…happiness even, during difficult times, requires that we find a way to notice the good while honoring the reality of our strain or heartbreak. That good sometimes feels as small and ephermeral as a firefly…something we might consider insubstantial in the presence of loss, shock, overwhelm. And yet, our attention to even the simplest evidences of the good (like the kind gentleman in the lobby of my hotel yesterday who held the elevator door while I wrestled my suitcase into an upright stance), is in fact, lifegiving. It is what creates respite from pain, and over time in those moments of respite, we may find a meaning or a direction or an energy that carries us forward.
For those who have experienced difficulty in any of its forms, I invite you to consider joining me as we explore how we find the light, draw the good from it, and learn to live with what we have been asked to hold. Happiness in Difficult Times, offered in Feb. at the beautiful Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, is a cornerstone of my work in this world; a work of conversations that matter deeply as we traverse this complicated and often incomprehensible world.
And to each of you, as our year comes to a close, I wish for you an abiding inner peace, a surround of beauty and care, and a lit path of goodness through the forests and fields of your lives.
Love, Maria
