“You would not believe your eyes, if ten million fireflies, lit up the world as I fell asleep. ‘Cause they’d fill the open air. And leave tear drops everywhere, you’d think me rude but I would just stand and, stare.” – Owl City

Yesterday night, the eve before Nyepi, I sat in the pool gazing into the Infinity. Nothing could have made those moments more special than a shooting star. I asked the Divine to help me communicate with Truc, my friend whose energy and spirit I often feel in the night sky. My request was not answered that night, but I felt as if that was part of the communication. The Divine was waiting for the right moment, the right day.

In the morning, Nyepi had arrived with a silence that surrounded the island. After my mediation and dream activation with Jaguar Mary, I felt a strong presence in the wind; Ryan. I have always felt his soul and energy in the wind, and this time was no different. But this wasn’t just a breeze brushing up against me. There’s no other way to explain the sensation other than saying that I felt the very center of that wind. It was more dense than the outside of the wind, and it had a peculiar touch to it. I felt both Ryan and Truc’s spirit joining in on my mediation.

This is where the Bali Magic comes alive for me. Nyepi was coming to an end. I was sitting by the pool gazing into the Infinity once again. This time, I did not ask for communication, I just accepted the beauty in front of me, knowing that Truc is with me in the stars, even without a message or a sign. I shift my gaze to the center of the sky, and a slow, bright red star fell directly in front of me. This falling star didn’t feel like one energy either, but two.

The very first time I saw a shooting star was nearly a month after my Papa Wheeler passed away. I was around the age of 7. My dad and I got our coats on and he sat with me on our front porch as we waited to see a shooting star. After what seemed like hours to me, it was about time to call it a night. We decided to give our shooting star one more chance. I looked up at the exact right moment, in the exact right spot in the sky, and I saw my first shooting star while sitting on the porch, shivering for warmth. I felt that my grandpa had taken that star directly from the Divine and handed it to me and my dad.

Shortly after I saw the shooting star here in Bali, my friend Caterina joined me in the pool, but not before telling me about this beautiful sight that I simply couldn’t pass up. I hadn’t carried around my camera gear all day, in order to avoid temptation from working, but I felt a call to bring my gear to the pool with me. I quickly gathered my things and Caterina led Shellie and me to the “middle pool” where we walked through the beaten rice field paths that were narrow, windy, dippy and bumpy… and dark. Very dark.

We finally get to a stable area on the path. We look out over the rice fields, and there it was; the universe overlooking the rice field that stood before us, clouds rolling in carrying enough energy to produce heat lighting that would light up the entire sky, fireflies dancing above us, beneath us, behind us, and in front of us, and one shooting star – just the right amount to make that moment the most spectacular moment I’ve experienced as human being. Just as I clicked my shutter, a lighting bug flew right in front of my lens. Just after I reviewed the picture, in awe of capturing that beautiful creatures light, the same beautiful creature that gave our friendship a theme song, the same creature that held our friendship together during the hardest parts of our lives, and the same creature that reminds us of our unbreakable friendship, one more gust of wind swept by me.