Palanca, De colores, and Cracking Open to Let the Light Out
On cracks
“But what if that’s how the light gets out, not in?” asked rabbit.
Bear smiled, quietly liking the feeling of her heart swelling.
Thoughts while making
It was so dark when Mom would wake us. A pack of sleep-eyed kids roused before dawn and herded into a cold white station wagon with even colder powder blue vinyl seats that squeaked when you slid across them.
In that dark, Dad would head us north and east. Over the hills, into the mountains.
A bumpy road leading to an open field marked the end, and the beginning, of the day’s journey.
I was young – five, seven, nine. But each morning was the same:
Nameless shadowy figures emerging from their cars, moving in the mountain predawn. Muffled voices whispering cryptic greetings.
And then, as dawn cracked opened, it happened.
It would wind around the mossy trunks of trees. Between the wood-clad cabins. Over the dew-soaked earth.
As the dark sky brightened, it would fill with song, voices coming from every direction.
Then, one by one, the cabin lights turned on. Doors opened. A sea of surprised faces, wide smiles and hugs and love - so much love.
“De colores, de colores brillantes y finos se viste la aurora,
De colores, de colores son los mil reflejos que el sol atesora.”
“All the colors, all the great, glowing colors that we see in the sky at sunrise,
All the colors, all the colors are seen in the thousand reflections in sunlight.”
This was my parents’ Cursillo, a spiritual retreat. With dozens of others, we came in the dark to welcome the light as the retreatants woke on their final morning.
We came offering song and palancas.
In Spanish, a “palanca” is a lever; a tool that allows one to overcome great resistance, to lift or move more than seems humanly possible.
On these mornings, we offered palancas as a communal force of spirit, a living reminder that we can literally move the earth when we lean into it together.
A fitting reminder, yet again, for this day.
What levers can you lean into today to brighten and better?