Poetic Reflections: blue moon

A moonlit night is oft described as silvery, defined by a pale sickle or floating saucer illumining the blue-black sky. It can represent a comforting presence against dark uncertainties; a radiant yet cooler liquid shine than the gilded sunbeams that saturate our uncloudiest of days. As if cooked up in a steep homemade mountain still by a hillbilly brewmeister, spilled down upon the lands like the stuff of myth and fantasy, this lunar essence almost seems of magic origin. Rationally, scientifically, we know better. It is, however, fun to romanticize and fantasize and permit our imaginations to gambol with gleeful strides.

Such aspects are commonplace. Familiar. And there is value in that. There is trust and security. I myself am a sentimentalist. I hold traditions to be dear. I celebrate the symbolic and nostalgic. I cherish those fond little gestures and trademark expressions we share and repeat. But it is through the seeking of the uncommon that is found the true magic in life. That’s what makes the heart pound faster, or even skip for a breathtaking instant. Why settle for the usual when you can behold the rare shimmer and luster, the elusive claptrapping thundrous wonder that occurs but once in a blue moon?

I beseech you to step off the path of nonresistance and mediocrity. Wander without a road map. Trek uncharted territory beyond your expectations into the realm where all good things don’t have to end and truly do come to those who wait. Where there is life as opposed to mere existence. And dreams are more than ethereal in our minds, but can materialize as the most tangible and remarkable of substances or experiences.

Sadly, we spend too much of our time going through motions. Obeying regulations and traffic signals, following the herd, doing our duty, and trying to fit in. All of that is swell. If you’re a robot! Sure, some things are necessary. But it is just as important to live — like there are no rules!

Each of us has within a very special gift: a pulse. We can let it beat with even measured blips on a screen, or we can set it free to throb at will and dance like a flame with exuberant leaps. Take a chance, do the unconventional, be deliberately spontaneous for a change! Why the heck not?

Don’t paint by numbers. Don’t live inside the lines or keep your brain inside a box. Walk on moonbeams. Act silly. See things from a new perspective while standing on your head. Explore those out-of-the-way places that go overlooked and underseen in the general course and commotion of civilization. You might not need to go far, might not need a compass to discover something extraordinary. Sometimes you simply have to open your eyes a bit wider. Or look for what you didn’t know you wanted to find. That which surprises and astounds you, perhaps challenges your beliefs. Something you couldn’t imagine would mean everything!

If you are not touched by fancy, by whim, by a sense of peace and bliss at least once a day . . . you should ask yourself, Am I really living? Because there are so many ways in this world to connect with the power of joy. To be swept off your feet by a positive vibe. Choosing the right ones, the ones that will mean the most and endure, takes a little more effort. It requires unlocking your soul, baring your inner self. Permitting that self to recognize and accept, to trust and believe it is real, not a hoax or a falsehood but actually there right in front of you.

If and when you are fortunate enough to stumble across what makes you inutterably, ecstatically, quixotically, unfathomably happy in this world . . . then you, too, have been touched by the light of a blue moon.

~ Published ~
August 31, 2011