Every year I look forward to seeing how my favorite sign is affected by summertime in the South. For anyone who lives in the South, summertime means the return of the jungle, the return of Kudzu.
Most people I know down here, loathe kudzu. One person I met was so convinced it was growing before his eyes that he measured it and discovered it grew almost a whole foot in one day. For people who live in the country, that moves weeding into a whole new category. Along freeways and in forests, entire hillsides are transformed into green sculpture gardens literally overnight. That’s a lot of jungle even to this Pacific Northwest girl from the Evergreen State.
So, as I was saying, every summer with the return of the ‘vine that overtook the South’, comes my excitement at seeing how it will transform my favorite sign. For many years, I’d just chuckle as I passed by, but this year, a year that’s felt like an unusually potent year of growth and transformation, I needed a picture. And with that picture, came reflections about why it always makes me smile.
*There’s something special about seeing behind the veil to what someone or something really is. And when that veil confirms what’s beneath, well then, in a world filled with a lot of things that don’t always makes sense these days, it’s awfully comforting.
*Seeing someone’s hidden gifts is satisfying… both for the seeing and the seen. When connection happens, it feels good and right because connection is good and right.
*Secrets hiding in plain sight, especially those you know most people miss, are sweet-bright spots for heavy days.
*Homeopathy, something I’ve been studying for years now, states that ‘like heals like’. From that grows the idea that since the sign heals me with smiles year after year…we must be alike in some way.
*What parts of me are hiding in plain sight?
*Do I find satisfaction sharing my gifts, but only with those who have eyes, (and hearts) to see?
*Are my outsides aligned with my insides but is that unknown to most people who pass by me? Does that matter to me? Or do I keep shining, regardless of who ‘sees’ me for who I am…simply because I love being me?
What about you?
What makes you smile these days? Can you sit with it, can you let the connection that brought about that smile grow even deeper gifts within you, gifts you can unwrap for days?
What if you unwrapped one smile and I unwrapped another and everyone around us unwrapped their own… would our world transform? We’d definitely have more to smile about and with more to smile about, maybe we’d even grow the perspectives we need to make our world a kinder, more smile-inducing place.
I’m in!
Are you?
1 comment:
Count me in! I love that visual of your weed covered sign- as we have many that are similar here. So many things have been unwrapping my smile lately. Firstly, the smells of summer - sweaty sunscreen, seasonal garden treasures- namely, tomatoes, the wafting smells of BBQ down the street. This summer is particularly sweet and has encouraged profound reflection. Our kiddo is moving across country for college in less than two weeks and I'm savoring all of the "lasts" or at least the "last for awhile". The last time we cuddle on the couch as a family, the last time I can go into his room for a random hug, the last time he cracks a joke at dinner and flashes his heart melting smile-these have been giving me quiet smiles lately. My smiling heart is seeing things this summer through his eyes.
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