Tonight's Soy Run

[orang37]

I have a leaf in my hand now. A leaf I picked up when I stopped on my bicycle to watch a firefly.

It's a green leaf yet; the highway has not had its way with this leaf, it left the tree just recently.

For a moment I experience this leaf-in-my-handedness-in-my-mindness as the only leaf in the only hand in the only mind in all creation. There was no other, briefly.

It is impossible to describe this frisson of the immanence of uniqueness in the ordinary.

Because it seems a sudden opening of the fabric of time, and the edges of the opening rapidly re-appear; re-weave themselves back together : restore the consistency of my mortal temporality, my bubble of present Self, my hatchery for the plots that all revolve around me as the central character.

And then, as if summoned by a vacuum, the mental mirrors start their dance of self-reflection : obviously there an innumberable infinite number of universes in which leaves are in hands wth eyes looking at the leaves :

Here's a man standing, holding a leaf, in an empty flat; he's staring at the leaf; his hand shakes slightly : he's just come back from a business trip to find his wife moved out taking everything, leaving behind only this one, accidentally dislodged, leaf of his favorite plant.

Here's a child finding a leaf in an autumn meadow with a ladybug on it, her mind filled with wonder as she sings :

"Ladybug, Ladybug,

fly away home :

Your house is on fire,

and Your children are alone."

Lao Tzu said : "to know and not be sure you know" was a "very good thing." And, he also said : "to pretend to be sure when you don't know is a disease."

Here's an old woman opening a book even older than she is, turning to a page where a leaf was pressed, a leaf from the tree under which she was first kissed under a giant October moon by a boy who was as shy and awkward as she was.

And there must be also countless bicycle riders in parallel universes stopping to look at a firefly, finding a leaf, having thoughts identical, or slightly different, from mine. Perhaps one of them was myself as a boy fifty years ago in Florida where swarms of fireflys lit up the black oaks and pines, synchronizing their flashes in the interstices between distant flashes of heat lightning that highlightred distant thunderheads.

Some voice inside me wants to say "To experience the miraculousness in the ordinary is not a "gift" : it is a return to the way things really are."

But the very presence of that voice takes me out of my unity of experience with firefly and leaf, and returns me to the sensation of the heat of the 12 plastic bags of fresh soy milk radiating through my backpack into my mid-back.

It takes me back into a body that is tired, that wants to go home, takes me back into a mind that visualizes a liter of the still-piping-hot joy-juice-of-soy next to me while I sit at the computer typing this.

And so it goes

best, ~o:37;

[lannarebirth]

Lovely, but I got to know. Where's that soy milk stand?

[Earl]

Wonderful. Thank you.

[eek]

There are fireflies here? Thats one of the things on my wishlist! Ive never yet seen a firefly with my own eyes. Where Orang? Whereeeeeeee??!

[IanForbes]

There are fireflies here? Thats one of the things on my wishlist! Ive never yet seen a firefly with my own eyes. Where Orang? Whereeeeeeee??!

I saw some along a river south and west of Chiang Mai, near the Burma border. The only other ones I've seen were on the Beaverkill River in north eastern USA. I actually caught one and had a closer look. They are remarkable creatures and about the size of bee. It's their abdomen that glows off and on. We don't have them in western Canada.

[Rasseru]

Wowie zowie, very nice!

[vestalfleck]

Catching fireflies was a favorite childhood activity of mine! Actually caught one the other night for old times' sake. They are definitely in Chiang Mai city. Caught mine just north of the old city (I'm horrible with directions/landmarks but I think it was near Lanna Hospital). I see them quite often when playing futborn. Good luck finding 'em! Fascinating creatures.

[eek]

Oh wow..I would be SOOooo grateful if anyone could sorta mark on a map where the best place to try see these guys are.

Also, are they around all year?

Really want to go firefly hunting!

[elektrified]

There are fireflies here? Thats one of the things on my wishlist! Ive never yet seen a firefly with my own eyes. Where Orang? Whereeeeeeee??!

Fireflies are everywhere in our moobaan. I love watching them in the evening. We are out by Ruam Chok Market but I would imagine they are all over Chiang Mai.

[Nienke]

There are fireflies here? Thats one of the things on my wishlist! Ive never yet seen a firefly with my own eyes. Where Orang? Whereeeeeeee??!

In my garden.

In the rice field next to my garden.

[kimincm]

There are fireflies here? Thats one of the things on my wishlist! Ive never yet seen a firefly with my own eyes. Where Orang? Whereeeeeeee??!

Anywhere the lights aren't on 24/7.

[ginnyten]

There are fireflies here? Thats one of the things on my wishlist! Ive never yet seen a firefly with my own eyes. Where Orang? Whereeeeeeee??!

I often see them at night while sitting in my tiny patio garden located in Palm Springs. Have seen many recently. It has been many years since I witnessed fireflies, and that was when I was a young girl living in New England in the States.