She asked.
"Ha, No..."
I replied.
We had just trespassed onto a structure that looked like a small section of the Great Wall of China.
This was at the edge of the city of Toledo, Spain, right by the Tagus river.
We'd left our rooms around as it was too hot to sleep inside.
"What about you?"
She said, “Yeah, but I find them comforting instead of scary.”
“Well..that’s no fun...”
The area surrounding Toledo is littered with old ruins from its past. It's built like a castle on a hill. It's like a place you see in Disney movies, only today the relics serve as a local hangout spot for kids who are up to no good.
At night all the shadows and stone were spooky remnants on the hillside.
“So why is it that some people see them all the time and others have never seen one?”
I ask.
She stopped for a second “Because If you believe they’re real, then they are."
“So it’s just a choice?”
“…. yeah, I guess it’s just a choice. You don’t have to be SO logical about everything.
The magic is real if you think it is.”
A faint murmur of conversations could be heard from the town, as many Spaniards stay up late socializing, laughing and drinking wine.
There’s something about that type of ambiance that changes your mood.
You start to feel more connected to spirituality, or maybe a mysticism of some kind.
This happens on occasion in nature, or late at night... when you open your mind for a bit. Not adding a belief, so much as leaving extra room for something in case it wants to show up.
We're left entranced by these perception changes.
I remember being in New Orleans, in the sticky heat and overgrown foliage, feeling some new kind of opened energy.
The music is buzzing and you’re walking down Frenchman and you’re feeling a bit intoxicated even if you’ve had nothing to drink. An energy where strangers are more like old friends and the lights make you feel lost.
It’s why we travel to see spectacular views. Why we climb mountains, take drugs, blast music, stick our head out the window of a moving car.
We feel a certain reverence towards these moments.
A quiet patience for passing your time.
We seek a change of perception that unlocks a different part of ourselves, and it’s often more available than we think. It could be something small to change your environment; light a candle, put on a different playlist, sit in a new spot you’ve never sat in before.
Dive in cold water. Stare up at the stars...
As wandered further up the wall to a dark staircase, I reached out my hand to feel the stone on my fingers as I walked forward toward the edge, where I took a seat.
Laying back, I exhaled a sigh, when suddenly I heard something that sounded like a faint whisper.
Like a rustling of keys nearby.
It was gentle, but enough to make me sit up.
“Did you hear that??”
“Hear what?”
I held my breath.
Further up the wall, you could see the outline of something heading our way.
Suddenly I was able to make it out...
It was 2 friends of ours also on a stroll.
I smiled seeing them, almost laughing.
But for a moment, I believed.
I was opened up.
xx David
“In the main, and from the beginning of time; mysticism has kept men sane, the thing that has driven men mad is logic."
- G.K. Chesterton