Waiting for Ladybugs

It's one big transition phase for me right now- transitioning to being a true "Seattleite" (yes, that's what they call themselves) from starting over again with buying furniture to applying for a Washington license to transferring Rupert (my car) to a Washington plate and other such things. EEEEEEP! It's difficult, because I like being in control and I like having everything figured out and organized. I want everything to work out all at once and quickly. I don't mind change, but I do not like the transition time between the changes.

Then I think of one of my favorite movies, Under the Tuscan Sun. If you love art/writing/Italy/gorgeous scenery/inspirational messages, go watch it. It's about a woman who loses every type of security she has through unfortunate events and gives up what's left to move to Tuscany where she doesn't know anyone there (or Italian for that matter) or what she's going to do with her life. She struggles through the transition, and a wise someone she meets in Italy says the following to her: 

" Listen Frances, when I was a little girl I used to spend hours looking for ladybugs. Finally, I'd just give up and fall asleep in the grass. When I woke up, they were crawling all over me."  


After hearing that, ladybugs always held this significance in my life. That if I'm constantly running around trying to catch ladybugs and fireflies (and perhaps... my dreams and goals...) that all that will happen is a breathless, exhausted, discouraged, empty-handed me. It always seems to be those moments when I sit down, breathe in and embrace wherever I am, and calm my mind that a ladybug softly drop onto my shoulder, my shoe, my dress, and my fingertip. And then, the rest of the ladybugs come out too.


Of course, we have to work to get to the meadow in the first place. We can't just sit down in whatever climate we choose and hope that the ladybugs will come. We have to plan and think about where to go and at times fight tree branches and hills and mountains to get to the right place. It's not always easy. It's not always fun or glamorous or exciting. The woods don't always love us back. But once we've done all we can do to place ourselves where we need to be, we must be patient for the ladybugs to come. And somehow they always do one way or another even if it's not in the way or time we expected.


If you're fighting through woods and mountains, then keep on walking to the place you need to be. And if you're there, look around and enjoy the view, and find the beauty and patience in waiting for ladybugs.   




"Signora, between Austria and Italy, there is a section of the Alps called the Semmering. It is an impossibly steep, very high part of the mountains. They built a train track over these Alps to connect Vienna and Venice. They built these tracks even before there was a train in existence that could make the trip. They built it because they knew some day, the train would come."
- Martini in Under the Tuscan Sun