FAIRIES, SIMPLICITY AND THE NEW YEAR
I was five years old when I saw the fairy. Her light was shining golden in the dark foliage, flickering on and off, on and off. I made myself as small as can be and tip-toed closer so that I could see her face and wings and perhaps even her magical wand. Suddenly, from out of the darkness emerged a dozen more fairies. I turned tail and bolted straight to my mother sitting on the camping chair close to the fire where my dad was making our dinner. I sat on her lap and told her that too many fairies frightened me. She stroked my hair and told me all was okay; that they were as eager to see me as I was to see them. That New Year’s Eve my sisters and I danced with the fairies, and they danced with us.
In South Africa, if you are in just the right spot, the summer fireflies will dance among the Christmas lights, adding to the wonder of the season. That summer[1] decades ago, remains etched in my heart. A simpler time.
As the world moves toward another New Year’s Eve, there is very little that is simple and so much that is complex. Yet, looking back, the 1960’s of my youth was every bit as complex as our world is today. That December, my parents chose to leave behind that complexity for a few weeks to embrace the simplicity and wonder of meals cooked on an open fire with little girls dancing barefoot under the stars.
I love the month of December. For almost all South Africans, it is a time to slow down. A time to be with family. A time to adjust our priorities and to reset our values for the year to come. In the rhythm of our year, December is a time to exhale, to set aside the urgent.
We can allow our life to continually be pushed from behind by the many, many demands and voices of this world, or we can choose. We can choose to rid ourselves of the clutter in our heart, setting aside anger and bitterness that may have fermented within us for years. We can choose the peace that comes with letting it go. We can choose a few quiet moments of prayer before our feet hit the floor in the mornings, and once they do hit the floor, we can choose to say no to the unnecessary (and there are many of these). “Better is a handful with quietness, than both hands full with toil and grasping for the wind” says the book of Ecclesiastes[2].
We get to choose. We can’t escape the complexity of life, but we can choose to find the simplicity within the complexity. A peaceful meal with family. A magical story read to a child. A day out with an elderly relative. Babysitting for overwhelmed parents. A quiet night playing a board game. Simplicity looks different for each one of us. I don’t know what form your simplicity will take, but this much I do know – if we sincerely seek it, we will find it. I pray that we choose this simpler way because simplicity is the key to sustainability.
As this year comes to a close, I thank you for your support of Orchard: Africa this year and for the simple acts of kindness you have shown toward those we serve.
May we think on these things!
[1] Just a reminder to those who live in the norther hemisphere - the southern hemisphere is in summer at Christmas time.
[2] Ecclesiastes 4:6