This is my remembrance of my trip to
the bioluminescent bay in Vieques, off the southeast shore of
Puerto Rico. Every word is true.
swimming in stars ...
you step onto the
boat in the dark, walking over a thin plank laid out over shallow mud. the boat glides almost silently through warm waters. a
glass portal in its bottom lets you see the increasing brilliance of the blue glow over the water,
light emanating from every point where the craft has disturbed the creatures of this
sheltered sea. white jets of faint foam are illuminated more and more brightly as you reach more concentrated areas of the
bay.
one by one you slip into the
water. each person before you emits a gasp as he watches himself enveloped in light, renewed with every hint of
motion, and you witness the splashes of brilliance that go up with each new entry. the
awe slowly dissipates into giggles and delight. wonder makes children of us all.
you plunge. and
suddenly you are reborn as a child of the stars.
every time you move millions of points of light spread out all around you. you raise your hand out of the water and flecks of
fluorescent blue pour down your hand like your arm is
the arm of a galaxy. you are the
galaxy, the
mother of all, and planets play games on your toes while the
stars burn out their short lives in bursts of intensity and beauty. you watch someone pour water down another girl's
hair and gasp to see the points of light rain down her braided curls. in wonder you
dive and watch your hands part the seas, every stroke a
wave of brilliance.
peace descends. you settle onto your back and look up at the stars twinkling through clouds.
meteors pass by in flaming streaks. you're a person again, but the stars are down around you and you're swimming in them.
you leave the waters as the boat prepares to go. but the creatures of the bay are in your
clothes, and every time you snap the fabric until it dries, for hours you
glow. there's a bit of the galaxy left in you.
you are luminous.
and you remark to yourself
later, months later, writing about your experience, that you'd never been so
alive. never. never as you were there, swimming through
life like stars.