flurry of leaves

I was lost in thought, as I all too often am, when there was a sudden gust of wind. It came from nowhere, unexpectedly. And it picked up leaves – leaves that were spread all over the ground – and suddenly these leaves were rushing towards me, en masse. And as they moved, they danced in the wind. It was like a a wave of leaves, a flurry of leaves, rushing towards me.

It stopped me in my tracks. It stopped my thoughts in their tracks, and for a few seconds I was fully present with the moment, not thinking about it, not thinking at all. For those few seconds, I was not separate from the flurry of leaves. I was a part of that dance. I was absorbed by the dancing leaves. And in that absorption there was an ecstasy. The leaves themselves were dancing so joyfully, like children at play, uninhibited, not being constrained by rules and regulations, by all the shoulds of society. The leaves were merely dancing, and somehow I was dancing with them. It was a liberation, a liberation from being lost in thoughts.

For a few seconds I was present. But in that presence there was no I. There was simply a flurry of leaves dancing in the wind.