I want to share this experience that I had last night. It had been a while (about a month) since my last trip. I made 5g dried cubensis tea. The come up wasn’t too fast. I stayed in my bedroom for a good bit of the peak. Meditating, stretching, just generally recalibrating my mind and body. This was my sole intention for this trip. I felt a calling to go outside. It was around midnight at this point. I thought, might as well try to get a glimpse of neowise if I can, so I made my way downstairs and put on my rubber boots for a quick hop out into the yard. It wasn’t meant to be incredible, but sometimes the unexpected makes things even more special.
I was disappointed when I went out. It was pretty cloudy. I could make out the brightest stars through the haze, but that was about it. No neowise :-( but then my attention was commanded by the awe of the lightning pulses radiating from all around me. The flashes of light that would dimly light everything around me, from storms miles and miles away. I decided that I should go to the dark side of my house, away from the glow of my interior house light that I turned on in the kitchen to navigate myself to the door, to really experience the full effect of the moment. It was way better away from artificial light. I had a strong urge to take my boots off and feel the grass on my bare feet. I felt connected to earth. I felt rooted in the grass. I felt balance. The darkness was scary, but the fear made me feel alive. I wasn’t terrified, just uneasy, not knowing if I was about to step on a snake, or get attacked by an angry raccoon.. a seemingly justified worry at the time. It was the unknown I was scared of. Then I was hypnotized by them. Everywhere. The fireflies. Thousands and thousands and possibly millions of tiny semi synchronized flashes of light as far as I could see across the fields and woods surrounding my house. from every treetop, Every clutch of bushes were alive with light. It was like the best Christmas light show a person can hope for. I felt as I was in a snow globe of light. I had a realization in that moment that their beauty made me forget about my fear. I was free from fear in that moment, and it felt good. In that freedom, barefoot, I moved through the damp grass very, I would say, in yoga type poses that just felt natural to do. The last one I had stretched my face to the clouds with my arms out hoping for a cool refreshing tingle of rain, and then opened my eyes.
As I said before the unexpected is special... when I opened my eyes, fully expecting to see clouds, there weren’t. It was as if somebody had tore the clouds away in the area directly above my head, like I was a wound and the bandaid covering was ripped off so I could breathe, and heal. I stared in astonishment into the depths of space. Like the clouds opens just for me. Not a second later, before I had a chance to blink a shooting star ripped across the gap leaving trails of fractals in its wake. So much happens in such a short span of time I was a little overwhelmed. I had to look away. I felt like I let out my gasped breath for ages, I had to remind myself to breathe. I calmed after a moment or two and looked back up and spent a good amount of time just staring at the Stars, probably about 15 minutes or so, until the clouds closed again. I was appreciating and thanking the cosmos for that experience, but it wasn’t quite done with me yet. He had arrived.
I first saw him in my periphery. An intense flash up the hill, maybe 50 yards away. I focused my attention on that area, realizing that whatever I saw was different than the thousands of firefly blinks. He shined again. In comparison to the other flashes, which I would classify as blinks, or twinkles, he was way way bigger. A prominent yellow pulse, like an orb, easily 3 times as luminous as any other light in the landscape. As he came closer, I realized he was so large I could see him flying in the darkness. His light never truely went completely out. He was always glowing, faintly, but enough to track him flying through the black. And when he lit, awe man was it powerful. Wherever he came close to a tree, the twinkles went out and they didn’t start again until he turned in a different direction. It was as if he was on patrol, around his territory, just making his presence know. And how could you not notice? He commanded attention. He flew around my yard from tree to tree and suddenly made a b line toward the field were I saw him dip into some bushes. His pulsing vanished, and followed the disappearance of his display, what I can only describe as an eruption of light twinkles in the night. I’m sure it was just desperation from beta males to woo a female in his absence, but what I saw was applause. The king of fireflies had found his queen. I watched for ten minute at the spot he disappeared. Waiting for him to show again. And he did. He flew back up, beginning the pulsing glow again back toward my house where he circled the yard once or twice more, peacocking his brilliance. I bowed to the king and he disappeared behind my house.
It was a truely incredible experience. One that I will never forget. If your ever out at midnight in the northeast US, midsummer, keep your eyes peeled and say hello to my friend the firefly king.
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