“Gonna find me a bluebird, let him sing me a song,
‘cuz my heart’s been broken much too long.
Gonna chase me a rainbow through a heaven of blue,
‘cuz I’m all through crying…”
I hope that a few other folks of a certain age recall that popular song from the late 1950’s, sung by Marvin Rainwater, who came from the Rosebud reservation in South Dakota. The tune went way high on the charts. Sadly, it was his only hit; apparently alcoholism and the heavy hand of fame wiped out the rainbow, and he died young.
My first husband used to sing it a lot. We were young then, and chasing our own rainbow. As a souvenir of his recent stint in the US Navy, he had a bluebird tattoo on each shoulder, and I guess that was reason enough for liking the song, coupled with the fact that he grew up just across the line from Rosebud.
The Bluebird song has been in my head since we happened to see a bluebird at our feeder yesterday. We get one or two every couple of years, for an hour, at best, and then they move on. But it has me thinking about looking for the bluebird of happiness. If you’re too young to be familiar with that phrase, stay with me, and maybe it’s meaning will become clearer.
A lot of songs from my youth were associated with blue skies, bluebirds, and rainbows. It seemed to be a time of hope and promise; the country recovering from a depression and a world war, and relieved just to have survived. And we didn’t just listen to that music, we sang it, whistled it, and danced to it.
I wonder, as we endure the stresses of the present difficulties, if we’ll come out on the other side of this as changed as we did back then; as inclined to optimism and growth. Maybe it depends on how we approach each of our days in this time of hanging in and hanging on.
One of my friends says she needs to create something that helps others in order to get through this. She’s been sewing masks and quilts. Another keeps busy, and claims to never have been bored a day in her life. Both of these women have serious health issues, and other heavy burdens, but they don’t linger in the negative. On the other hand, many people say they can’t stand another minute of mindless TV and being homebound. It seems mainly to be a matter of making a daily choice to be thankful for one more day, even if there are limitations. Maybe even learning to define happiness differently. The things we define as happiness are often transient, and meant to be, so we appreciate them more. But happiness is different from joy, which is deeper and more consistent.
The bluebird comes when least expected, and stays briefly, but the joy from his presence lasts as long as we let it. And strangely, we begin to notice other details of beauty and grace that enhance our lives. Like a rainbow, a dandelion, meadow grasses waving in the wind, or moonrise over a lake. This week, keep an eye out for happiness, whether there’s a rainbow or a bluebird in your sky or not.