fireflies

It is late at night, and I am standing on a hillside in Umbria in Italy. And in front of me just a couple of metres away, underneath the trees, there is something miraculous: fireflies are flashing on and off. There are many of them, dozens. And as I stand and gaze in wonder at this sight, I am mesmerised.

This scene has made my rational mind stop. It is incomprehensible to that part of my mind. And instead, I find my consciousness subsiding into a space of silence and mystery. And this is the beauty of so much of nature.

The rational part of our mind likes to understand everything. It wants to be able to predict everything. But I cannot predict where the next flash is coming from. The fireflies are moving around, in some mystical dance, and flashing on and off as they will. It's a beautiful scene, dream like, surreal.

And yet here it is before my eyes. It softens me. I feel that hard, rational being melting. And with that melting, I realise once again, that I am part of existence, and part of a mystical dance. And this mystical dance, of which I am a part, is unfathomable. It cannot be understood in rational terms. This is what we are part of: each of us, as a firefly, sending out little bursts of light in all directions, creating magic. This is life.