Wednesday Wish (28)

As I sit here in the dark of night with the humming insects and the cooing birds and the distant crashing of the sea, I watch as a moment transforms from a mere moment into eternity. Like a spec of dust seen through a water droplet, that moment expands, its pulse begging to be seen. All these years later a moment in time stands still, its essence still living and growing inside of me…as fresh…as eternity.

photo via Flickr by mrkgrd

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Not far from Venice, Italy is a little town that once welcomed me. Its sits like a quiet grandfather, drink in hand, permanent half smile, eyes lost out at sea. His warm and well-worn hand is open and inviting, tender and kind. So I slip my hand in his once again and remind myself a second time, to never, ever let go.

The scent of the sea, the leather in the shops, the belts and the jackets swaying in the breeze, the cigars from the men who play chess and bocce ball in the sand under the grand and beautiful old trees….the scents and feels of this kind and gentle town begin to come back to me.

I walk along the old road that lines the sea, the one with the grand and beautiful old trees. My sandals clap the stones, my dress it sways in the breeze, and my dreams…they grow. I am young and alive and my world is stretched out before me. What do I wish for? What will I be? Where will I go and whom will I see? I breathe in the scent of possibilities and feel them expand my heart. I breathe out my fears and watch them scramble out to sea.

And when I walk beyond the shops, beyond the men mumbling, beyond the women garbling, beyond the lonely dog and the suspicious cat, and beyond each and every normal expectation, I find myself alone. Just me and my sea and the gentle billowing of the grand and beautiful trees. I stop. I close my eyes. And I raise my face up to the sky.

And suddenly, I feel something tickle my face. A tuft of cloud? A curious bee? A fairy on its way to the sea? I giggle as I open my eyes and find more than I ever expect to see…

White puffs of flowers falling like snow, dancing and twirling beneath the grand and beautiful trees. They swoop up and loop over and down. Like unattached clouds. Like tutu-ed fairies. Like butterflies flit floating to the ground. And maybe just maybe, like unclaimed dreams left behind by those who had come before me, still as beautiful as the very day they were born. No…still more. Yes, still more.

I turn to look from whence I came and all along the entire road there is more of the same. The air is filled with magic puffs of white.

            “Its beautiful,” I say to the old man.

            “It happens just once a year,” he says to me, “and its not just beautiful, dear youngin', its magic.”

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My Wednesday Wish for You?

To let a special, magical moment in your life, live on for eternity. To hold up the droplet of water when you need it the most, to let it magnify, to let that forgotten moment feed your heart as it once did, again. They say we are better off if we don’t live in the past. But what if we just bring our favorite magic moments with us to the present? What then? I don’t think that’s unhealthy. I think it is honoring the magic in our lives, not letting it get away, inviting it to live on like our dreams...as fresh...as eternity.