Watch with Glittering Eyes

Feel the Rain

“And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.”

Roald Dahl

Singer, song-writer, and Nobel Laureate, Bob Dylan, once wrote, “Some people feel the rain. Others just get wet.” That just about sums up the difference, at least to me, between optimism and pessimism. I'm not sure whether we are born with an orientation toward one or the other, or if it's developed over time, but I'm pretty sure we can overcome pessimism if we want to.

I want to tell you a story about a baby born in the days before antibiotics. She came into the world with an asthmatic condition, worsened by having parents who smoked cigarettes. Because she was a mountain child, born in a tiny town in Appalachia, there was no hospital, only a small infirmary ill equipped to care for a sick infant. So, she was trucked across the mountains to a convent hospital in a larger town, where she was left to the care of the Sisters for months at a time. She spent most of her first two years under an oxygen tent in the sterile environment of that hospital, but now and then, when she was having a good day, one of the young novices would take her to her cell for the night. The baby was carried through darkened corridors with the background music of A Capella voices singing vespers. The baby's parents came to visit when they could, but there was work and another child to consider, and visiting hours were strict in those days. When she was two, the small town scraped together enough money to purchase an oxygen tent for the infirmary, so the little girl could be cared for at home. She spent her childhood being side-lined on school field-days, and her adolescence suffering from allergy related sinus conditions, but somehow or other, she still grew up to be an optimistic human being.

Since this child happens to be me, I'll tell you why I think I survived. First of all, by the grace of God I landed in that particular hospital and in the care of a young nun who truly loved me. And, secondly, because of the cigarette smoke inside our house, I spent most of my childhood outside—in the woods and streams of western North Carolina. I believed whole-heartedly in magic and the soul and spirit of Mother Nature nurtured me back to health. I have never departed from that relationship with the natural world.

I wonder whether you watch the world with glittering eyes, and if you feel the rain and consider it a blessing. The greatest secrets, especially those that connect us to abundant life, are hidden in the most unexpected places.

                                                                  In the Spirit,

                                                                     Jane