Darkness and Light

If there’s a way to describe Hanoi in the late stages of winter,

it’s dark. 

If you are a shady soul, tending toward the dreary, then Hanoi is the place for you.

And I love it 

Not sure what that says about me

but I do.

Which is not to say there are not moments of despair.

When it becomes too much, a challenge, for me. To see the beauty, splashes of light. 

They exist.

But you need to seek them out. 

Flashes of warm, of silver, 

And yes, light.

A reel pushed into my feed today 

as they do 

But this one stood out 

It was simple, really, and intended as a reminder.

The principle was that any beauty you spot in the world, anything you see that yields wonder, or joy

Is a reflection of your own inner beauty.

We see, in the world,

who we are.

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So,

I go looking for flashes of light.

Seek, ye find.

A young teen, wobbling his bike through traffic, self-assured with backpack slung across his shoulder. Hair, flying in the breeze, wiggle here, wiggle there. Possibly heading home from footie.

It’s his reflectors that confront and stand out to me 

Sources of light, of heat, of joy. 

My rational science brain reminds me

it’s just the reflection of our headlights

those aren’t their own light source

But I brush those rationalizations aside

This young rider pedals in rhythm, as we all do 

Breathing in, and breathing out 

Splashing his light to the world, perhaps without even knowing it 

He is youth, power, energy in the form of being. 

And the beauty of it all 

as I see this young human sharing his light with the world

is that I remember myself, many years earlier, powering through the streets, on my way home from Footie

eternally powerful

and most importantly, 

a source of light.

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