This art featured in my memoir, Incandescence: Rising Above Darkness is included as a moment of serenity between chapters and does not necessarily have any literal connection to the story.
Meeting Myself On A Mountain Top & Wishing On Every Shooting Star In A Meteor Shower
Incandescence: Rising Above Darkness Excerpt Chapter #36 Woman Who Dreamt She Was Sleeping But Is Really Light Dancing
On a vision quest, I climbed up the tallest hill in the high desert to fast on the top of it in solitude for three days. I brought only water, matches, a teacup, a sleeping bag, a plastic tarp, rope, a hammock, toilet paper, a pencil, a journal, and a few power bars just in case.
Watching the gray clouds dance around the sky all day, it occurred to me late in the day that I had not asked for my vision quest name yet. So for the first time since I asked for a friend and thanked the hummingbird, I spoke. “What is my name?”
Immediately, a voice came into my head and said, “Woman who dreamt she was sleeping but is really light dancing.”
I laughed long and loud at my name and thought, of course, I could not have a name like Babbling Brook, Skipping Deer, or Soaring Crane. Then I had a serious thought, wondering if it was really my name. I decided to say it aloud to find out. I said, “Woman who dreamt she was sleeping but is really—.” Just then, the clouds parted for the first time all day as I said, “light dancing,” and the sun shone directly on my face as I reclined in the hammock, and I knew it was my name.
I started a small fire and placed the wood where I could reach it from my sleeping bag. As the darkness increased, so did the stars. I was amazed at the number of stars I could see as I watched the sky all night. Then the shooting stars began. I thought the reason I saw so many shooting stars was because I had not watched the sky until dawn in the high desert before. Later, I was told it was a meteor shower. Wishing on every single one of them kept me busy. I started with huge wishes: world peace, end to hunger, pollution, racism, sexism, elitism, ageism, and illnesses. Then I wished that everyone would find a sense of purpose, love, and joy. As the stars kept shooting, I had to wish as fast as I could, and I started wishing for things for myself, to be able to spin thirteen times on skates, and to get my art published. To keep up with the pace of the streaking lights in the sky, my wishing had to become stream of consciousness.
Clare Cooley
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