My nephew Jason is now in his thirties. When he was a small boy, he delighted in pelting me with snowballs. His aim was great, he rarely missed, and I soon recognized that where snowballs were concerned this mere child surpassed me by a mile. My solution was this: I would simply respond, “One day, Jason, when you least expect it . . .” On occasion I would remind him of my promise and once sent him a virtual snowball thanks to my computer. Yet I never really delivered. Last summer while attending Jason’s wedding I considered having the bartender shave up some ice, rolling it into a ball and letting Jason have it right there in front of God and everybody. But I didn’t. Instead when a private moment presented itself, I told him of my plan. He smiled, nodded, and said, “That would have been good.” Point made for the aunty in the style of counting coup.

And there is something about events that occur with the impact of an unexpected snowball that opens up the earth and like Alice in Wonderland we are falling down the rabbit hole. Next thing you know, we are in a completely different frame of reference, often asking how we got there and stunned at what is going on. I’m sure you have plenty of examples of this in your own life just I have in mine. It may be a business opportunity, a subpoena, the receipt of a most perfect gift – each one arriving with no advance warning and seeming to come out of nowhere. We then find ourselves having to reframe everything on the spot. It’s as though Alice’s White Rabbit is tapping his watch and prodding, “Oh, my ears and whiskers, how late it’s getting!” We’re talking about real change, real fast.

I’ve been noticing some interesting post-holiday behavior. My sense of it is there’s a discontentment in the air. For example I was at my favorite restaurant Isabella Café here in Tinley Park last Saturday evening. Two out of three parties asked for a different table after they were seated. One party asked for a third table and considered asking for a fourth, but sensibilities prevailed and they settled in. I assure you these figures are accurate because I was filling in for my good friend Sue and I was doing the seating and re-seating. From my view there was absolutely nothing wrong with any of the tables. Yet here it was – a vague yet palpable sense of things being not quite right.

Then I was reorganizing my desk and came upon this: “All things have a home: the bird has a nest, the fox has a hole, the bee has a hive. A soul without prayer is a soul without a home. . . . Continuity, permanence, intimacy, authenticity, earnestness are its attributes. For the soul, home is where prayer is. . . ” Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel

Yesterday I visited my hairdresser Lisa to get spruced up for the holidays. As I settled into her chair she smiled her signature smile and said, “Here. This is for you.” She then presented me with a gift bag and in it was an iron fairy. Turns out the fairy is named Emma, she has the wings of a bee and is seated with her arms wrapped around her knees. Then Lisa said, “She reminds me of you.” And once more I appreciated Lisa’s brilliance in areas far beyond color and cut.

This fairy symbolizes all of us under the influence of this past year. 2009 has been a real doozy, hasn’t it? And from time to time I have felt as fragile and vulnerable as a tiny fairy. Resources and relationships that we thought we could rely on have shifted or even vanished. In response we’ve gotten creative and networked like never before. We’ve learned that we are stronger and sturdier than we realized. We’ve faced situations that have demanded we develop courage and stamina. And while we have faltered on occasion and are still facing great challenges, we have come through it all. We have become iron fairies.