Beauty and the Mess

would a yogi watch fireworks? they are so destructive to nature. would a buddhist practitioner watch fireworks? look at the birds fly in all directions as the fireworks go off.

last night, my mom texted to ask if I was going to watch the fireworks. we call her from the couch. (yes, i am a we now and the man who makes my life better had just expressed he loved fireworks. i didn’t know that.) i tell her we aren’t going to watch fireworks. there will be too many people down by the SD bay and we didn’t make plans. my mom proceeds to describe how much i like fireworks and just like that she hands me back a slice of joy i had forgotten because i made fireworks “bad” in my mind-heart. we get off the phone and we make a plan to pickup a non-dairy milkshake from Plant Power in OB and head to the bay to check out the fireworks. there are too many people and we didn’t make a plan, so now we are driving through the crowds and double and triple parked cars. just as we are about to give up, we find a place we can pull up against a red curb just three minutes before the twenty minute show of beauty and mess begins.

and that’s how we reclaim our wholeness. we see the shadow. we see the beauty. and we let it all in.