This month it was pretty easy to find the light.
On my birthday I got treated to a beautiful lunch at a much-too-fancy restaurant, received kind and heartfelt messages from loved ones, and in the evening went over to my boyfriend’s parents’ house for a small family get-together. We were all sitting in the living room when all of a sudden, a four-piece mariachi band marched in, playing in all their glory. It was such a surprise and so thoughtful and sweet that I cried, and just felt so supported and loved by my Ecuadorian family.
Every single evening when I walked into our bedroom and saw the fairy lights we hung up, I felt so incredibly cozy and happy, probably far more than a simple string of lights should have warranted.
There was the afternoon that I came home from a government office after an awful experience with the worst kind of bureaucracy and feeling like I had no options left. Frustrated, I spilled everything to Paulo’s parents (and cried, of course) but then! His dad made a call to a friend who might be able to help us and suddenly I had a spark of hope. I realized after that it barely mattered whether this lead would work out – what was important was having a spot of light when I was feeling so dark.
There were small moments of light too, like the few moments of fun I had in the mornings doing my brain training games, or the day we went to the park to do acro yoga and afterwards got chocolate ice cream with rainbow sprinkles on top, or anytime I spoke Spanish and felt like it was better than before.
Let’s be honest: every day, month, and year is full of bittersweetness, good vibes and not-so-good ones, dark and light. All I can ask of myself is that I appreciate all the goodness I’m lucky enough to have, whether that’s Facetime with friends, getting a seat on the bus, sun on my face, reading a good book, a sense of possibility, or a good stretch. It really can be that simple.
Oh, and get yourself a string of fairy lights because those things are downright therapeutic.
Sources of Light:
What if you’re the light in a dark world? “What can I do, right now, to be the light?” Beautiful thoughts from Elizabeth Gilbert.
Elise Blaha Cripe is sharing 100 Days of Pep Talks right now, and they’ve all been very helpful and healing.
My favourite motto lately, “just be here now” is helping me feel so much more centred and peaceful.
I’m still looking for the light over on Instagram as much as possible.
