On Mustang Island, the gulf sand is warm all night, teasing us away from sleep. It was the Fourth of July and a gentle rain was falling. The last bonfires dowsed, carfuls of revelers headed out and abandoned the strand, and at last I was alone.
The waves were quiet now but for the rain’s gentle kiss. Even the shore birds, as white as breakers, were resting out of sight. A warm tide was slipping in, and I walked in the sigh of bubbles at water’s edge.
There was a heaviness in my steps. A change was coming, and decisions clouded my mind. But then the oddest thing– as I stopped to watch the water, I could see my feet outlined.
A surreal light rose through my toes, radiating out around my steps. If I stood still, the light shone beneath me. If I walked, it followed with. And when I began to run, the strange light raced me, pacing me step for step.
As I ran down the beach, with every stride the light increased, down a shining path.
As if I had become Wonder itself, I danced, and leapt, I wrestled and tumbled, celebrating every flash. Throwing handfuls of sand and stars into the sky, falling to the ground into light.
The heavens gave me a playful wink, and I was painted in reverse, my figure in darkness, my shadow perverse.
Where the warm water circled my feet, it burned a blue flame. Fountains of light burst ahead as I kicked at the break. Then into the waves, slapping at the crests, launching color and light against the shore. My every move an event. My every whim, fireworks. Bright streamers everywhere, clapped hands, ramparts, bombs bursting in air.
But nothing could have prepared me as at last I dove all in.
Engulfed in strange light, head swinging side to side, showers of light launched from my mouth, blue lightning from my hair. From beneath the waves I laughed out loud and flung stars into the air.
In a wonder as sheer as rain, in the edge between miracles, a faint refrain. In the shifting sands, in the ribbon of light, a payment in advance, a paean.
Not a question, but the asking.
Where that which Is, is always with us.
One weightless apparition.
Like the ocean waves.
Like grains of sand.
Like the rain.
Following is a video of the phenomenon of Bioluminescence.
Copyright 2015 Harry D. Hudson.
The photo above is from Tasmania, copyright Phil Hart
Video copyright Kasia Katarzyna
