You just stand still, eyes closed. The air tastes a bit humid and sweet. Deep breaths center you inside of yourself. The ground beneath you feels soft, but not unstable, and it bounces a bit with every step you take.
You slowly open your eyes, but this world greets you with darkness. The changes are minimal: just some spots of light here and there, as if the world is trying to be cautious. You look around, and the spots of light become clearer. A glowing butterfly, pink and bright, flies around nearby, following its own twirling path. A ladybird, glowing red with barely noticeable sparkles, comes closer and retreats again, finally landing on a leaf. A bright green leaf slowly falls from above. Looking up, you see many more leaves above you. They shelter you and this world like a blanket.
You take a few steps and then some more. You look around in wonder and awe. It’s barely noticeable over time, but still, the world has become a lot brighter. Everywhere it’s glowing and sparkling, showing outlines of plants, leaves, flowers, stones, water droplets, small insects, and even some birds. To your right is a giant tree towering over you, with its large, rather dark-green leaves. It is covered with glowing beige fungi, as well as flowers in red, orange, and pink. Sparkling dots of insects fly around it. It offers shelter to a couple of small brownish-red birds that sit on its branches. They sometimes hunt the insects that are swirling around nearby or pick on the leaves. You really need to bend your head back, but finally you see the top of the tree. It is very high, and still there seem to be even more leaves above it. You can see them shimmering softly through the tree’s crown.
On your other side, there is an immense interconnected network of bushes, smaller trees, and flowers, almost forming a wall. Branches, leaves, and roots are intertwined which makes it difficult to distinguish where a plant starts or ends. This green wall is blooming in red, orange, and yellow, attracting many butterflies and insects in all imaginable colors. It is an amazing glowing spectacle.
Similar to the giant tree, it seems like a world of its own. As you move closer to watch it, a bright blue butterfly with silver sparks on its wings, sits on a leaf in front of you. It almost seems as if it’s showing off. Like the other insects, it shows no sign of hesitation or fear. They just allow you to be in their space.
You turn your attention ahead and the almost-hidden path leads you through this world of sparkles and wonder. You slowly become aware of all the sounds it’s producing: humming, tweeting, rustling, chirping, the gurgling of hidden water, the soft sound of your steps on the ground, and the thuds when things hit the forest floor. The ground is mostly covered with grass. The outline of every blade is glowing softly. Sometimes, you can see the mud beneath them. Closer to the plants, there are also leaves, branches, and blossoms covering the ground, and adding new sparks of color to it.
You sense the magic in this world—its aliveness and its connectedness. You are not only a visitor, but can step into this too—it is ready to welcome you here. Some turquoise birds fly towards and around you curiously, tweeting and communicating with each other. If you extend your arm, you might find one or two landing on it to tweet and watch you while you move through the woods. You glance right and left and above you, trying to not miss a single bit of all these wonders around you. At a closer distance, you can see the birds’ colors changing and shifting slightly all the time, always exhibiting new shades of turquoise and blue. It’s a never-ending change. Though soon, some of the birds set off to a nearby tree with giant light-green leaves, which seem tasty to them, and the rest follow suit.
The gurgling sound you heard before becomes louder and louder. As you turn around another green wall of entangled plants, you encounter a small river. The water is running rather quickly, gurgling as it runs past the stones and plants in the riverbed. It glows in a soft, light-blue color. It looks magical and strange at the same time, as if it is inviting you to experience it anew. You step towards the river and sit down on some light-gray stones. They feel surprisingly warm. You let your hand wander through the grass around you, feeling the blades and the droplets of water on them, and then you touch the blossoms of an orange flower growing nearby. They feel soft, almost a bit furry, and smell sweet and fruity. Turning your attention back to the river, you slide your hand into the water, feeling its softness, wetness, and coolness. It feels nice and fresh. It swirls around your hand, comes and goes in waves, and brings glowing leaves and blossoms with it.
As you look up again from the water, you see a panther on the other side of the river, watching you curiously. Its slight, dark-blue glow is barely noticeable but it looks at you with bright-green eyes. It pauses and sniffs in your direction. Rather abruptly, it turns around and disappears as quietly as it came with a few quick jumps alongside the river and back into the trees.
Looking up above the river, you finally get a glimpse of the sky. It is quite dark blue and sprinkled with stars in light colors, such as yellow, white, orange, and light blue. Some are brighter, others are barely visible. Watching the sky, you gain a sense of possibility and openness. Every star is its own world with its own wonders. The air feels lighter, less humid, and less sweet. You smell the freshness of the water, the wood, the plants, and the soft scent of the blossoms around you.
You walk along the river uphill. It’s not steep, but you still notice an ascent. The plants around you become more distinguishable, but smaller and less interconnected. Now, you can clearly make out trees, bushes, and flowers with their leaves and blooms in all their stunning variety. The colors get a little softer and less bright than before. Overall, the world has become lighter, thus you perceive more details as you study the plants and animals closely. The bushes to your right have thick, yellowish, dark-green leaves and are full of berries—small red ones and some bigger orange ones. They smell sweet and inviting. Birds and insects swirl around them and feed on them. There is so much aliveness in this place; every inch of it broadcasts life and connection. The other side of the river features a variety of trees—with smaller and bigger crowns—that offer shelter to small animals. Sometimes, your eyes catch a movement there, but it is too quick to make out any details.
A few more steps ahead, the ground is firmer and mixed with stones. The river becomes more shallow and smaller until it rather suddenly disappears into a crack in the stone. The crack is only a bit wider than the river and too small for you to fit through. You curiously peek through the crack and see stones illuminated by the water’s glow, and walls covered in softly glowing green moss.
You continue on the path that leads around the stones and further uphill. It becomes broader and broader as the plants find fewer and fewer places to grow on the stony ground. The trees no longer cover the sky, and it turns a lighter blue. Some stars are still visible, but most of them have faded into the lighter sky. You can sense this world becoming more spacious and preparing for something new. You pause, glance around you, and take a deep breath. The stony ground and plants are still glowing a bit, but less. Only a few, rather big, golden-brown birds have followed you from the dense woods. They accompany you while circling above or sitting on nearby bushes.
The path gets steeper as it leads upwards, seemingly towards the sky. You move on, watching nature retreat further as it gives way for this world to be still and peaceful. Finally, you reach a plateau and can see what is behind the hill you just climbed. You glance around and see a rich and vast landscape before you. Behind you, some parts of the land are still darker and filled with sprinkles of colorful light from the plants and animals. Other parts are lit by the sky and the sun emerging at the horizon. The sun bathes the world in its glow and outshines every other previous glow. You take a deep breath and feel the openness and the expansiveness of this world, and the possibilities of a new day. New energy is spreading more and more, radiating from the rising sun. You stand still and just immerse yourself in this magnificent view and the feeling of possibilities ahead of you.
~ 10.07.2021