Sprites are small, wingless woodland creatures that are very nearly impossible to see, for they are gifted with a talent or trait providing them with some form of invisibility or camouflage. Shimmer seems to, well, shimmer – like dappled sunlight beneath a shady tree with a breeze causing the light spots to move and become lighter and dimmer. The illuminated patches seemingly change from green to gray to brown and sometimes only white as the light itself when it is seen piercing the most shadowed spots. Even the dark areas seem lighter and darker by shade and color, reflections alternating randomly.
Shadow could be right next to Shimmer and would appear to be just another shade of dark without standing out. Shadows are especially easy to overlook as the object casting the shadow demands all the attention. In this way, Shadow goes unnoticed because even when a random shadow is seen moving across open ground, our instinct is to look for the object causing the shadow and not at the shadow itself.
Beyond these characteristics, the description of Sprites becomes more difficult – like trying to use words to describe feelings of joy or love. Millions of words could never define feelings to someone who has not fully experienced a particular emotion. Becoming more meaningful once experienced, but still just a reflection of our individual experience. The magic of imagination or the depth of love are not limited to what we believe or expect, but by what we allow ourselves to experience. Only then do we become a reflection of the feelings and emotions that escape definition.
If you have seen sparkles glinting across a pond or mist moving through trees; a shadow moving with a cloud on a summer’s day or something that catches your attention from the corner of your eye. . . but looking, everything appears normal. Just a shrub or a tree, a flower bending to curtsy and dance with the breeze or the wind playing in a meadow as the grass sways and cheers it on. This is where the Sprites are, in the quiet magic of sometimes, where we pay the least attention. Entire worlds and lives and the mythical fulfillment of living pass unnoticed beyond our own distraction as we pursue exactly what we are missing. In a sense, Sprites are trying to help each of us realize the fullness of life by distracting us from our own distractions.
Giving us the opportunity to wait for times where thoughts begin to disappear in moments of uninterrupted silence; that is the well of inspiration, imagination and magic. There is the source of our being, the moments when life is experienced and we become an indescribable force – the greatest reflection of the most wonderful words; because we have felt them.
Fairies may paint the world with magical colors in the spring and fall, etch winter wonderlands from ice and snow and have the natural flow of the seasons to command. Sprites, on the other hand, are our way of being a reflection in the world; something to distract our attention toward natural beauty or introspection, to distract us toward love. Without them, we might as well be a tree in a forest; unmoved as birds nest, come and go, squirrels leaping from branch to branch and seasons passing. We would experience living unmoved, with single determination, and miss out on life.
No comments:
Post a Comment