STORY AND PHOTO BY MARINA GROSS-HOY
The headline of my local newspaper’s weekend edition was literally: “I do not have good news.”
It was a quote from Quebec’s premier at a press conference about new measures responding to rising COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.
I flipped through the newspaper with fingers sticky from the juice of the most exquisite orange I have ever seen. When I sliced it open, it caught the sunlight and glowed golden.
That and this.
Terrible news and beautiful fruit.
Color can take us somewhere deep, under the surface and beyond words. I’ve been paying attention to the colors around me as a mindfulness practice, and I’ve found it helps me sit in these moments of tension.
It’s a million little moments of feeling lost and looking up.
It goes:
This orange is glorious.
Oh, I remember how to feel pleasure.
I feel held. I feel safe.
Even here.