Things here in America areβ¦not good. We wonder whether our neighbors will be allowed to stay, and whether our international friends will be allowed to return. We look to our government in horror at its violence and repression. We wonder whether we should hunker down and survive, or run away, or step out into the arena to fight. (At least we are no longer on our heels.) With the news hitting our neurons 24/7, it can hard not to feel the weight of the whole world, the weight of history, the weight of the future. Itβs intense.
How might we find joy in a time like this, without burying our heads in the sand?
An answer may lie in magic - in everyday sleight of hand. We all have the capacity for it: out of nothing, something. Something small. Something beautiful. Think of the singing abuelita in Ross Gayβs βOpera Singer.β Or a picnic, under a tree, its leaves dancing in the breeze. Saying βI LOVE YOU,β maybe even to a stranger. The list goes on: dad texts, haiku, gardening, balloon animals. Mix together skill, wonder, an element of surprise, and voilΓ ! Youβve all cracked a smile. In all this chaos, channel the trickster, and conjure βflowersβ from thin air.