The Blue Bird of Happiness

 Hello All:

At home I have a comfy chair with side table that might serve as some sort of personal religious shrine. On the table is the Bible with some religious books; my rosary, a statue of St. Joseph and a small painting of St. Michael the Archangel. 

Recently, I discovered my wife's glass sculpture of the Blue Bird of Happiness sitting on my table. She found it in one of the boxes from our move to Arizona a couple of years ago. And of course this personal shrine is the perfect place for blue bird!

That's when I remembered that I've written about this Blue Bird of Happiness throughout the years on the blog. I pull out a classic writing from over ten years ago and feature it for today's writing.

The Blue Bird of Happiness

As shown in the picture, the Bluebird of Happiness is simply a glass sculpted bluebird. Originally created in 1980 by a glass craftsman, Leo Ward; the trademarked Bluebird of Happiness is currently manufactured by Terra Studios.

The Bluebird of Happiness first appeared in literature in an early 1900s play by Maurice Maeterlinck titled, L'Oiseau Bleu. In the play, two children are instructed by a fairy to set out on a journey in search for the Bluebird of Happiness. The journey is very interesting in that they visit places such as the Land of Memory, the Palace of Night, and the Kingdom of the Future. But the journey turns out to be a failure as the two children never actually find the Blue Bird of Happiness. It isn't until they return home that they discover the bird to be in their birdcage the whole time. The moral of the story: one doesn't need to travel far to find true happiness. Oh, but the moral takes on a double whammy as the children give the bluebird to a friend who had been sick. Somehow the bluebird escapes and flies away! This event symbolizes our realization that treasures are found in the journey of life along with extending random acts of kindness; but never reaching the destination.

The bluebird has been decorated with mystical powers for many centuries. Those who carry some statue, a painting or even have a bluebird tattooed on themselves are blessed with good luck, victory and triumph. The bluebird symbolizes springtime, new beginnings, joy, and love. And now this wonderful bluebird is available in the form of a small glass sculpture.

It was my wife who originally received the Bluebird of Happiness as a gift. I wasn't fully aware of the Bluebird of Happiness until a couple years into marriage. You can carry it with you as a good luck object which rarely fails. I've taken the Bluebird of Happiness with me during job interviews. My kids have used it during big tests at school. Once I accompanied my violin-playing daughter to an orchestra audition. I stood outside the door with the Bluebird of Happiness sitting in the palm of my hand. Both of us watched through the small, glass window as my daughter executed, flawlessly, in front of the judges.  And of course I carried the bluebird down the hallway with such reverence. It remained sitting in the palm of my hand as-if it were alive. I'm sure those standing nearby found my behavior unusual.

Some people might not believe in the power of the Bluebird of Happiness. But that's just how people are nowadays. Many people no longer believe in things. People are told to be rational and avoid any beliefs in omens, signs, dreams or sacred items. And when it comes to God and religion, there seems to be a great push in society to no longer believe. We've come so far as humans, and no longer need the "invention of God" or things we do not understand to give us a sense of hope or power. Such a shame; once upon a time our universe was so vast and mysterious. We sought ways to understand and tap into the unexplainable--understand the mind of God. Now we've limited ourselves to understanding our favorite professional athletes, and worshiping their individualized winner's attitudes while denying any sort of beauty and mystery in the surrounding, exterior universe.

Halloween is roughly 6 weeks away; a time when the veil between this world and the other is at its thinnest; a time when we can truly recognize that there are realities in our world that cannot be explained through science or the rational mind. If you are a regular visitor of the blog and a fan of my writings, then surely you believe this. We need to serve as opposition to the social push of no longer believing in the mysterious and unexplained.