Rising from the ashes: The dandelion has my smile
I was reading 'Peace is in Every Step' by Thich Nhat Hanh this week, and these lines resonated so deeply with me: ‘I have lost my smile, but don’t worry. The dandelion has it.’ If you have lost your smile and yet are still capable of seeing that a dandelion is keeping it for you, the situation is not too bad. You still have enough mindfulness to see that the smile is there. You only need to breathe consciously one or two times and you will recover your smile. The dandelion is one member of your community of friends. It is there, quite faithful, keeping your smile for you. In fact, everything around you is keeping your smile for you. Oftentimes, when we lose our smiles, we are unable to see it anywhere else either. We are so deeply immersed in our grief and sorrow that nothing permeates through this. My workplace is a veritable forest, and at the nadir of my depression, I decided to go for long walks every day. Walking had always helped me, and surely walking in this beautiful ...