The Silvermoon Fish

Once every thousand years a special phenomenon occurs over the sea. This magical moment has only been seen by very few, since it not only happens so often but it barely lasts for an instant.

On this most rarest and exceptional of nights, when the moon pulls the farthest from the sun, she rises to her full to cast a brilliant flash of silver-blue light. Now, this flash of light only lasts for a few seconds, but throughout its duration, if one looks close enough, one may see the event take at hand.

As a moon beam stares down at its own reflection it causes the water to spread. Small ripples begin to sparkle and dazzle dancing like the scales from a fish's tail. The height of the water begins to rise creating such a shallow tide that it is as if it were being sucked back by a magnificent force. Then, suddenly, a blue moon drop floats softly down into the sea, where it continues its descent, following the moon's ray under the water, sinking to the bottom floor.

But the moon drop never reaches the bottom floor, because it becomes more distant from the light, fading into the darkness of the depths. And just before it reaches the consummation of being engulfed by the gloom, a slight transformation occurs. Stretching from this shadowy abyss a fish can be seen, in place of the drop, swimming up to the surface. It ascends into the light of the moon beam, metallic scales flutter and flicker. The higher the fish climbs, the brighter the scales shine. It reaches the surface and with a great big splash it emerges forth into the air. But it does not stop there. As if the moon beam holds it afloat in the sky, it continues to follow the path of light pulled by the magnetic charm of the moon. The fish continues to swim up towards the moon herself and just as it approaches this white orb it opens its mouth and swallows her whole. All of a sudden, the fish bursts with a radiant light of silver.

And then, an abrupt emptiness is filled by the dark. The thrust of water falls back down pushing the tide back to rise. The silver fish glows amongst this darkness and then falls. It drops down returning to the ocean in a veil of shadows. Another splash occurs as it enters the water, although this time into a black and murky void. Slowly it enters the shadows of the dark. And just when it is about to be fully enclosed by pitch blackness, there occurs another transformation. A soft glowing sphere begins to float upwardly. And as had happened earlier with the fish before, the higher the orb climbed the brighter it shined. It too breached the surface with a splash and continued its mesmeric flight back into the sky.

Now, this instance happens so instantaneously that the moon returns to her path in orbit as if nothing ever happened the seconds before. And the silver moon fish remains nothing more than a flicker of a magnificent moment beginning with an end and ending with a beginning. [So, we may learn: the ending and starting of things have no limit from which they began. The start of one thing is the end of another, in so as the end of one is the start of another.]

Moishe Pipik © 2011