High on Happiness

The Knack of Acceptance: A Happiness Tale

April 27th, 2010 | Author: Susan K Minarik

So this is it, she thought. Here I am, a yellow violet on a woodland floor. I’m not a rare and elegant orchid, or a ruffled rose exuding heady fragrance in a garden, or even a cupped tulip on the edge of a manicured lawn. But I am a violet.

And look how beautifully the sun shines on me!

She had dreamed grand dreams when she was still a bud, unfolding. As she felt her green leaves unfurl, and sensed the DNA of orchids directing the shaping of her cells, she imagined she was destined for greatness. She would be among the queens of the flower kingdom. She imagined herself opening in an exotic botanical garden where she would be protected, pampered and highly admired.

So when her petals first stretched themselves open and she took a look at herself, she was quite stunned to discover she was but a lowly cousin of the grand orchids whose genetic heritage she shared. She was still more stunned to see that not only was she not in a finely tended botanical garden, she was in no garden at all.

Had she been a human, she might have tumbled into a snarl of resentment, even anger, or despair. She might have felt cheated by the fates and decided she was a victim of misfortune, left to the mercy of the wilderness and weather.

But violets are simpler than humans, and far more skilled in accepting what is. So despite being quite surprised at the reality that faced her, the little violet quickly released her fantasies and looked around to see what was really what. And that’s where we stepped into the story, you and I, just in time to hear her exclaiming “And look how beautifully the sun shines on me.”

As the kaleidoscopic moments moved across her little violet life, she would discover wonder after wonder – the insects with their iridescent wings, the marching armies of ants, the singing of the leaves in the boughs above her, the sparkle of dew and starshine.

That’s the luckiness of being a violet, this skill at accepting what is. Once you get the knack, wonders appear. Wonders and wonders and wonders.