Sometimes some memories come up, and they want to be heard.
This weekend Lenny, Steve and myself were watching Phish live via a stream on the Internet - like we almost always do when they are playing a show. This particular show was a little more special than the others from this tour; For one thing - they played my favorite of all the Phish songs; "Famous Mocking Bird" which is a very technically challenging and complex song which hadn't been played by them since the year 2000. Second, they played another amazing song that is rather rare and epic to Phish shows; Icculus...which to me is more of a story than a song. Icculus is a part of the saga of "Gamehenge" (as is Famous Mockingbird) in which each different song tells more about this ever changing tale.
Now, upon hearing Icculus I felt compelled to do an impersonation of Trey (the lead singer) and his inflection during his story telling - which then compelled Lenny to show me a Phish show from a while back, in which Trey tells a rather lengthy and fantastical story having to do with being a child and watching hours upon hours of television in his room. As the story goes; one day, while watching the show "Lost in Space" Trey realized that the show was sending him a personal message and telling him to go to a clearing near his home (that looked like,according to Trey, the exact same clearing in the show).
Apparently he began saving scraps of food from each meal and putting them into his lunch box. Then one day when he arrived at the aforementioned clearing, he found a pentagram burned in the earth and realized what he must do; he must place each piece of food that he had saved on each corner of the star, and an "utter ball" (a bouncy ball with utters that both Trey and the characters in the show coincidentally had) - in the center of this star. As legend has it, a great wind began swirling after Trey did this, and he began to see glimpses of his future, and the faces of his future band mates. Finally, he used the fact that he saw into the future to the faces of his band mates to segway into a song.
This left me thinking....Does he really think this all happened to him? How much of this DID actually happen to him? If it did happen, certainly no one would ever believe such a thing even if it was only partly true, and he had fabricated some of it for story telling purposes.
Ultimately all my pondering about this unbelievable story got me thinking about something that happened to me a few years ago. Maybe not quite so profound, but definitely magical and special and unbelievable in itself.
I must preface this by saying that I am very spiritual. Not religious - well, not in the traditional sense anyway. I come across things that agree with my soul and mix and match what I believe in.
I am (and I am fully aware this sounds crazy, but do not care) rather magical, and strange things always happen to me - in some instances there have been people there to witness this magic for themselves, which justifies my claims and absolves me of any incredibility...because, you see, this story is not fabricated in any way - none of my stories are actually!
Well, on a sunny day in March a few years ago, I decided to go for a walk. At that time I was living at my house in Saugus - My mom grew up in that house. My Grandfather had it built in the 1960's from just a plot of empty land. I love that house. It is such a wonderful little neighborhood. My street is a cul de sac and is very quiet and quaint. At the end of the cul de sac is a small hill that leads down to the Saugus River and a nature trail that leads to "Pranker's Pond".
Pranker's Pond (which is actually more of the size of a lake) is a man made body of water that was used at the turn of the century into about the mid 1900's to cut out ice blocks for ice boxes (refrigerators) in the winter. It was also used for boating and recreation in the summer. These days people usually just use the pond for fishing or taking a scenic walk... it's also the place for high school kids to party/drink during the night.
So, here I was on this day, walking down the trail deep in thought, soaking in the nature all around me - when I saw something in the trees out of the corner of my eye. As I moved further down the trail it happened again - then I saw it - a GIANT bird flying up ahead of me. At first I thought it was a stork - but my later research revealed that it was actually a Great Blue Heron. Each time I walked closer to this elusive bird it would fly a few feet ahead of me. We continued this way until I reached the pond - at which point it decided to take a rest in the trees.
Even though I had been going to Pranker's Pond my whole life, I had never really explored the forest and trails surrounding it - and so, felt the need to do so on this gorgeous day in early spring.
I went up and down many hills and trails with lovely views of the pond or the landscape. It was a very peaceful, soul nourishing feeling and I was kind of filled with the spirit of nature - a very serene, content feeling. I remember finding a particularly beautiful spot on a rock over looking the pond (once again, think what you will of me - I don't mind) I said a little incantation to call any woodland spirits (faeries, ghosts etc) to me....only the good ones of course.
After my little "prayer" I continued to walk a ways down a trail when a beautiful black and gold butterfly started to flutter around me. I stopped and observed it's playful little dance for a minute or two. I then felt the urge to hold out my palm to the butterfly and said "Come see me!"
To my surprise it fluttered about me for a bit then LANDED on my palm for a brief moment before fluttering about again.
Now, if that was the end of my interaction with the butterfly I could say it was merely luck that it landed on my hand, and though it was certainly special - not really magical, spiritual or profound. However; the butterfly and I continued this enchanting little game for about 15 minutes. I would hold out my hand and call to it and it would flutter to me and land for a moment then fly off again. It was amazing. I knew I was part of a sacred moment. It happened so many times that I was able to actually take my phone out and wait for it to come back again to snap a picture so I could document this epoch in my life. The actual picture I took is posted above...once again proving the factualness of this story (honestly, not that it REALLY matters to me - I know it's real - but it's great to be able to back up something unbelievable so all the pessimists have no leg to stand on!)
Eventually the butterfly (or whatever spirit it actually was ;)) grew tired and decided to nap on a nearby stick. I said my goodbyes to it and walked away in wonderment. I knew that I had just been part of something very special and felt blessed and humbled by it all. Moments like that in my life definitely make me feel intertwined to something so much greater - I think we absolutely are all interconnected, and we are all an energy force that exists beyond what we call "reality", which is just a little slice of something much, much bigger.
As I walked the trail back to my home, who did I see flying before me once more....The Great Blue Heron. I smiled to myself as I opened my cell phone to pull up the picture of the butterfly on my hand from just moments ago. It certainly had been an amazing day, I felt a part of something that not many people get to be a part of. And I am grateful and appreciative that I experienced...and realized that. This universe is far more mysterious and complex then we could ever understand or comprehend....and I think that's the beauty of it all.
Let go. Leave yourself open to all possibilities - who knows what could and will happen.
No comments:
Post a Comment