Halycon Days

"A period of peace and happiness."

The Halcyon is a bird of Greek legend. The ancients believed that the bird made a floating nest in the Aegean Sea and it had the power to calm the waves while brooding her eggs. The belief in the birds power to calm the sea originated in a beautiful myth recorded by Ovid.

The story goes that Aeolus, the ruler of the winds, had a daughter named Alcyone who married Ceyx, the king of Thessaly. Ceyx was drowned at sea and Alcyone threw herself into the waves in a fit of grief. Instead of drowning, she was transformed into a bird and the wind carried her to her husband.

Today, halcyon days leans more towards nostalgia and the recalling of the seemingly endless sunny days of youth, but the original halcyon days were in the depth of winter.

The depths of winter. Those are the real halcyon days. That's when it gets the darkest and the coldest. But peace is drinking tea with your best friend when it's cold and happiness is being surrounded by friends with lighters when it's dark.

I was just thinking about it today. Life isn't an American summer cliche, it's harsh and it's brutal. I'm too young to be nostalgic but I'm old enough to know what I have are halcyon days.