Crystals are Like Ice Cubes

My daughter coined the phrase that I used as the title to today's posting. I greatly appreciate the imagination and logic of my children, because it brightens my days and reassures me that it is possible to find truth and direction when faced with questions and unknowns. She was learning about crystals the other day.  She made the connection to ice cubes after I answered her question about what crystals look like.  It is wonderful to watch her and my other children learn.

I have been thinking of crystals recently, too, in the context of Superman of course!  His parents packed some crystals with him when they kissed him goodbye.  They are remnants of his heritage, ghosts of his family (his loved ones, his teachers) and tools for learning.  They represent solidity, clarity, beauty and wealth.  Their existence, however, alone did not mean that Superman could download automatically all they contained.  He needed to take the time to handle them, and listen and learn.

I have been fortunate to have what I might identify as a similar assortment of crystal-like tools.  I can look at remnants of my past and learn from them.  I can listen to people who have known me for my lifetime (or any small part of it) and engage in enlightened - or otherwise useful - conversation.  When I find myself in a place where the learning and listening can commence, I am usually calm, and I usually feel cared for.  And I can place them into two categories: Community and Coping skills. 

Coincidentally (or not?) this month marks the one-year anniversary of the time when my world (as I had known it in the context of my marraige) utterly fell apart.  I have consistentally referred to it as The-Worst-Month-of-My-Life.  I was alone, overwhelmed, sick, broke, used and abused. There had been plenty of shake-ups leading up to it and I had endured most of them in isolation.

My community is valuable to me.  It is always somewhat in flux as it is normal for relationships to be newly established and grow - maybe flourish - or wilt a little, wash away or be intentially uprooted.  My friends, relatives, coworkers and groups whom I am associated with stengthen my ability to cope with the ups and downs I inevitably encounter on a day to day basis. 

Even Superman had to cope.  Even he had to retreat and take counsel with Jer-el's voice and image. Even when he wanted to lead a normal life and throw off his cape after dropping his glasses (see Superman II) he could only let go for a brief moment before realizing that he was, in fact, made to be Superman - it was a calling he did not deny.

Superman's Kryptonian heritage may have given him an advantage over other creatures on the planet - particularly other beings who may have wanted or needed to perform to his same effects - but it was learned with conscious reflection, with careful consideration, and also with a touch of grief at the loss of a world he would never know.  His crystals in his icy refuge provided him a platform to stand on, for learning and growing into, and retaining his role.

My ascendance through an unequally-yolked marriage enabled me to more easily become a SuperMom.  My crystals, like icecubes, are an enigma; liquid and solid at the same time, bittersweet.