I was listening to a Brené Brown podcast the other week (I listen to a lot of Brené Brown podcasts!) and she was talking to the author Susan Cain about a concept called ‘Shards of light’.
It comes from Kabbalah. Now I am not a very religious or spiritual person at all, but I liked the concept. What I took from it is that according to Kabbalah when God created the world, he said 'let there be light' and light came and filled the darkness, then ten holy vessels came forth, each filled with a primordial, divine light. These ten vessels were sent to the world like a fleet of ships and if they had arrived the world would have been perfect. But the vessels were too delicate to contain such a primordial divine light that the broke open and scattered shards of light across the world.
There are shards of light and pure joy everywhere, even in the darkest of places, and as humans we just need to be more intentional about seeing them in the world around us.
It’s pretty much the same concept as gratitude. That there are always things to be grateful for, when we just take the time to look.
So I’ve been on a shard hunt!
Here are some of the shards I’ve found this past week:
The way my dog Dolly walks and runs is undoubtedly a shard – she is a long-haired cardigan corgi and she bounces up and down like she is made of rubber. I cannot watch her trot along without smiling. (if you want to see what I mean you can watch here here - https://youtube.com/shorts/HsycBp_mt9Q)
Ok all my dogs! I have four of them and dogs are such pure examples of joy and love – not bogged down with politics or bullshit, they just live and love and it’s a great reminder to us all about what life is really about.
Singing along to the Disney Encanto soundtrack with my daughter in the car. I love belting out a tune in the car and recently my daughter has been demanding a lot of Encanto – which I have no complaints about because those songs are TUNES! And just hearing my daughters cute little voice singing ‘we don’t talk about Bruno’ is very shard worthy.
My heated blanket! If you don’t have a heated blanket, you are missing out! Just snuggling under this big fleecy thing that warms you and hugs you – it’s very soothing and everything is better when I am under my heated blanket.
The signs of spring – I always really feel that ‘fresh new page’ feeling about spring. The long dark winter is drawing to a close and sunnier times are coming. All the beautiful flowers and the bumblebees and butterflies starting to appear. The only sad thing about spring is that it means my days with my heated blanket are now numbered!
Going to Old Hunstanton beach – a blustery walk along the beach with my family and dogs. Followed by a lovely lunch and an ice cream at the beach café. I love a beach dog walk and I love spending time out in the natural world, so this for me felt like a very shard filled experience.
What shards have you seen this week?
My heated blanket is my shard too. That and ice-cream, that can totally be a shard too, right?!