Astronomers have a term they use for all the excitement and drama that is held in the moment they first expose a new telescope to the distant light of the universe. With the successful refit of the Hubble Space Telescope, we have, in effect, something brand new built upon the old, and a promise that new light from distant stars and galaxies will be seen with new and stunning clarity.
Our lives are like that old telescope, and we have galleries of images stored in our heads and hearts, the light of memory still shining brightly within when we summon it. All of us have experienced joy, success, love, and also failure, loss and sorrow. But to my mind the key to happiness is in finding something new in your life each day to “continue the mission.” Times of transition and change are replete with this energy of exploration and discovery—the same excitement that accompanies first light.
Moving to a new town, meeting someone new, reaching out to the possibility of relationship and love again are all “first light” experiences, a curious mixture of anxiety, hope, anticipation, and expectation. Life has given me all these challenges in the last year, and it takes courage to open yourself to this energy again, particularly if you have suffered a recent loss or setback, as so many have in this flagging economy. Yet consider that if you can find a way to discover the “yet more” in each day of your life, to see the first light of the day as a harbinger of all possibility, you will be in the perfect frame of mind to find real happiness.
We’ve been through a great deal in the last year. People have lost homes, businesses, jobs, marriages, loves. They have packed up their hopes and memories in cardboard boxes and shipped them UPS to an uncertain future. They have taken to the highway, heading east or west, with the thrum of anxiety in their gut, and a flower bud of hope and courage in their heart. Hard times test us all, but it is how we find the courage to open ourselves to the possibility of new life after the harsh winter that we are truly defined. A wise man once said: ‘courage is not the towering oak that sees storms come and go, it is the fragile blossom that opens in the snow.’
Sometimes the greatest courage is saying “yes” to another, even after the sorrow of loss has wounded you deeply. But without that courage to see first light in another’s eyes, life itself is lost. And so on this memorial day, as we commemorate the courage of so many who have fought and died to preserve the values we hold dear, let us also celebrate courage in another way—by finding in these times of dislocation and distress a process of rebirth and discovery, and a glimmering of “first light.” Believe in a future where every good thing you have hoped and reached for in life is still possible. Say “yes” to someone. Break the silence in the grocery store line with a smile and a kind word. And if you are fortunate to have found a new place in this world, or a new person where you shared the joy of first light, as I have recently, then believe in all that might become.
We have to do this on a personal level if we are ever to do it as a community, a city, a state, or a nation. Yes, the problems we face now are daunting, and they will present us with challenges we have not experienced in this nation for many generations. But take hold of someone’s hand in the days ahead. Pull together. See that first light in their eye and, by all means, believe in the promise it holds. This is real courage. This is the seed of all love.
