the moon has shown me a lot

The West Coast of Ireland is magical. It never ceases to amaze me. The air is cleaner, the people friendlier and the landscapes. Wow. The landscapes are incredible. Tonight I sat with a good friend of mine, legs hanging over the Southern Cliffs in Lahinch. The night was cold, the grass was damp and the sea view was astonishing. Proper Irish camping. The sky was jammed with dark, uninviting clouds that whispered promises of heavy downpour. I knew our tent wouldn’t be strong enough to keep us safe and dry from the erratic showers, but fuck, it’s probably better than sleeping in the car. We were already closer to sunrise than sunset and we no longer had the willpower to organise reasonable sleeping arrangements. All we needed was a place to lie down. Fast.

I was tired. I knew this. Yet I was reluctant to seal myself in that plastic bag of a tent to scramble for a few hours of deranged sleep. My friend seemed to understand this. He must’ve felt the same way. We didn’t even bring sleeping bags. So we kept our eyes open, speaking seldomly and thinking rapidly.

As we approached sunrise, our appetite for standard conversation diminished. We needed something stronger than idle chat of work and travel to keep us interested and awake. What better place to talk about the subtle intricacies of life than on the sharp edge of a damp cliff?

We looked out over the sea, sharing philosophy and admiring the power of the waves that shaped the jagged cliff edge over centuries of precise chaos. I’ve surfed those waves. I thought. I’ve been bashed up mercilessly against those rocks. How lucky I am to be alive… How lucky.

The more we sat, the more we saw. Stars began to peek through the cracks in the clouds, openings formed that granted us glimpses into the heavens. The moon broke through the murk, lighting up our surroundings and allowing us to admire its excellence in awe. Finally, a reprieve from the rain. What a relief…

Unfortunately, language is too weak and fickle for me to be able to explain to you exactly what I felt as I watched the moon rise. There was something inherently special about that scene. You know that uneasy feeling in the pit of your stomach that blurs the line between excitement and nervousness? I feel that now as I write this, just thinking about it.

Nothing in my line of sight that stayed still. The water, the clouds, the stars, the moon. All flowing together seamlessly, ebbing back and forth with the manic grace of tribal dancers. It was wild. The trashing sound of the wind confirmed that, yet I felt at ease. I was comforted by the chaos. This is the West of Ireland. This is how it should be.

As the moon rose, the sky brightened. The heavy clouds were filled with light, turning them from an intimidating dark mass into a beautifully gentle cage, selflessly trapping the radiance of the moon and sharing it with darker corners of the sky. A solid streak of silver slowly appeared as the moon crept through a crack in the clouds, shining confidently on the water's surface, showing an uninterrupted reflection of the moon's power over the sea. A reflection that went directly from the face of the moon, over the water, onto me. I saw this one to one connection with my own eyes. I couldn't have been mistaken. The moon has created this reflection for me.

I look over at my friend. He doesn’t see what I see. I thought. He doesn’t see the reflection that connects my body with that of the moon. He sees his own reflection. His own connection. His own streak of silver. For him, that’s all that exists.

I could walk down the road, dragging the light of the moon along with me, as if on a lead. It wouldn’t hesitate, or ask why we’re moving. It would just follow obediently. I could watch it move in contrast to the horizon and surrounding landscapes, altering my perspective… My reality. I am free to change the scene, see whatever I want to see, and experience whatever reflection I choose to, but no matter how hard I try, or how much I want to show my friend this irrefutable link between the moon and I, he will never be able to see it. And I’ll never be able to see his…

So be it.

The two of us can look at the same moon, at the same body of water on the same night and see two completely different scenes. This doesn’t shock anybody. You’re not going to be offended if I say that the reflection of the moon points towards me, instead of you. Science is not baffled by this. We understand theoretically that we are the ones creating this reflection. So why, when it comes to other aspects of life, are we humans so convinced that we see reality for what it is, as opposed to what we make of it?

Countless books on psychology, philosophy and spirituality have taught me that the reality that we see, is the reality that we create. I have always understood this, and tried to actively implement these ideas into my life. Yet it wasn’t until that moment, sitting on that cliff, with the wind howling and the waves crashing below, that I truly understood what this meant.

Throughout the years, I always believed that I was right. I was certain that the way I saw things was the only way things are. This led to arguments about the importance of university, travel, creativity…

You see, I made the tough decision not to go to university. This, in my mind, was a step forward towards creating the life that I wanted to live. My parents disagreed. They saw things differently and I couldn’t understand why. We fought about it relentlessly. In the reality that I had created for myself, university was not the right path for me to go down. In their realities it was. That’s okay. It’s natural that we’d fight for what we believe is right. We saw things differently. So be it.

Tonight, the moon showed me that what we see is not necessarily what’s there, and therefore we’ll never truly be able to show what we see to anyone else. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try, it just means we shouldn’t get too hung up on it. Accept that you see things the way you do, accept that you can change how you see things for better or for worse, and accept that not everyone is going to be able to see the same reflection of reality that you see.

Have a great weekend,

Louis