Prada

A few nights ago, the fire alarm in my building went on and off at random all through the night. The fire department came and determined there was a malfunction in the alarm and it couldn't be serviced until the company opened at 9 am. With only a few hours left before I had to be at work, I curled up in the closet with earplugs. I'd been out sick from work with a relentless migraine the day before, and the one thing I'd been looking forward to was a good night's sleep.

As I lay in the closet, fuming about the intensity of challenges that just don't seem to stop, I thought of the story of Julia Butterfly Hill, who lived in a redwood tree for two years to keep it from being cut down by loggers. Once, during an intense storm, as she clung terrified to the tree's branches fearing she was going to die, the tree spoke to her.

"Think of the trees," it said. "In a storm, trees don’t try and stand up straight and tall and erect, they allow themselves to be blown with the wind. If they don’t, they snap and fall. Think of the trees, and allow yourself to be blown with the wind. Allow yourself to go crazy, do what it takes, allow yourself to blow with the wind, and know that I’m going to hold us up. I’ll hold us up and we’ll make it through."

That story helped me through the night, and it came to me again when I saw this photo. Mannequins in meditation, peaceful in Prada, one with the trees on Fifth Avenue.