*I wrote this about a year and a half ago or so.......came across it and decided to repost it because I am all tied up in all the home dec projects with nothing to show yet. *
There on the beach, the waves lapping against the sandy shore it could be seen like a mound of sea kelp. Upon closer examination, upon treading lightly toward it leaving footprints along the way the heart begins to race. What is it? The closer you get the more it becomes evident it is nothing like you’ve ever seen before. The colors are luminous and glisten around what is now clearly a cocoon. Wrapped in what appears gauze-like its shape is perfect and oval and glowing. You stand motionless with the knowledge somewhere deep within that you shouldn’t touch it or move it or even stand too close. You see the sun is beginning its descent and in the twilight the cocoon begins to move ever so slightly. Standing back yet not completely afraid you watch and you wonder what could possibly have created this. The only sound at first are the waves as they come in and recede again wetting your toes. Then suddenly there is even more movement and in the air, the still night, beach air is the sound of the most beautiful piano music you have ever heard. It’s hypnotizing and it brings you to tears but you don’t know why.
You are transfixed and you are weeping and you feel the shake of your shoulders as the weeps become sobs. And still you have no idea why.
The cocoon is opening in front of you. From this oval splendor rises one wing at a time….the beauty of the wings is indescribable. They unfold up, up and suddenly completely unfurled you see her underneath them. She rises slowly as if to unlock each vertebrae and hands like fine bone china stretch towards the sky as she stands. The piano music is louder now and its cadence is quicker and the notes more defined. She raises one leg with toes perfectly pointed and steps on to the sand, gently raises the other to fully release herself from the cocoon. She turns slowly and with calculated motions walks toward the waters edge. The sun is gone and the moon is full and casting beams against the incandescent wings. She starts to step, one knee bent the other leg in front of her she takes a miniscule leap…one then the other in time with the piano. Her hands are moving and sweeping in the air above her head, behind her back, out in front of her. She continues leaping and prancing along the sand and the wings move slowly in time with her movements. She bends and reaches for something you can’t quite see at first until she turns and with one in each hand she swirls sea kelp as though they were silken ribbons. She makes them twirl and she makes them dance as she leaps, toes pointed. She herself twirls and it’s as if the very air is lifting her. She takes a series of short, quick steps forward as she bends at the waist and up she rises again, she bends backwards and in the air the kelp ribbon is moving in its own dance. She crosses and uncrosses them and she reaches with them and she curls up with them. The piano music is soft in some moments and more dramatic in other moments as you watch this seaside ballet. You don’t speak and she does not acknowledge you. She runs in to the water and out again many times. She is wearing a long and loose fitting garment, the sleeves are long and draped and although the moon dances with her it never illuminates her face. All you can see clearly are her tiny feet and delicate arms and hands. You feel like an intruder in a cosmic recital never intended for an audience but you can’t look away.
Suddenly she stops as quickly as she began and she releases the kelp ribbon in to the sea and the piano music is softer and her shoulders look hunched as if a weight had been placed on them. Her pointed toes now drag in the sand as she walks and you have the urge to run and aid her. The pianos last note resonates as she reaches the open cocoon and steps inside, one leg then the other. The wings, the hauntingly beautiful wings fold in to themselves resting against her back. She rolls forward as she had rolled upward when she first appeared. In the fetal position she coils herself inside and the gauze wraps around her and around her and around and yet it seems to be getting smaller. You watch listening to the sound of your own heart beat as the cocoon nearly vanishes. It is then you move, it is then you find yourself stepping gingerly closer and there on the sand is a sea shell, a perfect oval seashell the color of the wings in its place. The water had washed away all her dancing foot prints. The clouds moved in and before they could block the moon entirely you bend and pick up the shell and place it in the palm of your hand and close your fingers over it.
You know you will never be the same yet you don’t know why. You know life as you knew it would be forever altered. You know your very being, your inner soul, your humanness has been raised to a level you never fathomed. It’s a power that has come from this magical witnessing of the dance. But what was the dance? Who was she and where did she come from? Why were you allowed to see it? It occurs to you the answers will not reveal themselves immediately, you will have to be patient and hope they come to you in time. Hours had passed that seemed like fleeting moments, no rhyme and no reason but when you stop and look back one more time the sun is rising and perhaps it’s your imagination, but you swear you see a butterfly hovering with wings exactly like hers. You rub your weary eyes and then open your hand, the shell is gone.
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Love,
Lisa
XOXO
P.S. Today we celebrate the official beginning of Fall with the Autumnal Equinox. A time for harvesting and nesting and soft glows and the smell of aromatic spices. The leaves changing against a cool blue sky.
Here we won't feel it yet, athough shadows are longer and night fall will come sooner. I await the true all over feeling of Fall and hope it arrives soon. I feel like making soup and pumpkin bread but when it's 80+ degrees out it doesn't really create that mood.
I am hopeful!
See you all soon and have a lovely weekend!
