Glow

My family spent an hour or so in what must have been Heaven.

I don’t know if I have ever been as close to a heavenly sight as I was last night. As the sun started its decent behind the earth and the night sky came, the stars seemed to bury themselves beneath the water of the Indian River. What begun as small glimpses of fluorescent specks below us, quickly turned into showers of blue particles flowing all around. As we twisted and turned our bodies to manipulate the liquid we stood in, we glowed with a light as if we were bathing ourselves in the makings of a glow stick. As my daughter pushed herself through the warm waters with hands out in front she took on the shape of a mermaid, swimming care-free, with amazement in her eyes. Each movement stirred these little creatures that in the light of day seem all but extinct. We let the water flow across our chests and around our arms and each time we would lift our bodies up we sparkled with the glitter of these amazing things.

As we began our travels back to the land and the motor of our boat began its stir, the bioluminescence lit every movement the water made. It seemed as though hundreds of lights had been inserted into our craft, to light every inch of the outside hull. Every wave that came and smacked against us shot out into the black waters of night, shining the way. As we slowly moved along we watched as the schools of fish, both tiny and large, shot out like torpedoes from the sides of our vessel. It seemed as though comets were soaring past with fiery tails following behind. As we all sat knelt on either side of the boat, we were mesmerized, almost hypnotized, by what we were witnessing. An hour of my life I sat, body bent in half, head pointed over the side, hand dragging with fingers spread as I held it in these waters, and I watched the light pass through me. For this one evening this would be my notion of Heaven. It was like a movie had swallowed us whole and was now playing us on a big screen. This is where the ideas for the colors of Avatar must have come from.

 The closer we got to land and electric the dimmer these misplaced stars became. Almost as with the morning sun, we watched the glowing of a million flecks fade into the dark waters, again.

I don’t know if everyone around our area has seen what my family has seen. I don’t know if others have felt what we have felt. But I know that for that little while, out there on the river, everything around seemed to fade away. There were no cares or struggles filling my mind. There were no cries or arguments coming from my children. There was no discontent leaking from my husband and I, myself, was at peace, for a little while.