Energy Under Starlight

Memory:
I was about 18 years old, in Berkeley, California. It was a warm night, the air full of possibility. I was hanging out with kids I’d known for years (seven or eight of us?), old friends, each carrying our own stories. Around sunset, we walked up a hill and found ourselves on a new, soft green sports field at UC Berkeley. Barefoot, the grass felt soft and thick and a little warm still from the afternoon sun.

I don’t remember who suggested it. Maybe no one did. Maybe the night itself whispered it to us. We formed a circle on that grass, standing facing into the circle, eyes wide with unspoken wonder, and each of us began shaping something in our hands. We didn’t call it anything, but it felt real. A ball of energy, warm and glowing, almost heavy enough to have weight. We started tossing them to each other, laughing and feeling something ancient and true. I remember my friend Sam saying sagely, “Oh, you have done this before.” I replied, “Yes,” from some part of me that recognized it and knew what to do.

At the time, I had never heard of Chi balls. I didn’t know what we were doing in the language of traditions. But I knew it was sacred, even if I couldn’t name it. We were sharing energy, our own, the earth’s, and the stars’. We lived as the energies within and around us were woven together in that moment.

It’s funny how a night like that can live forever in your bones. How even now, decades later, I can close my eyes and feel that energy ball, like a fuzzy ball of powerful Love between my hands.

I’ve been thinking about that moment today, after a day that left me tired and stretched thin. And I realize that even now, I’m still tossing those energy balls. To friends, to strangers, to memories. Every act of kindness. Every question I ask. Every time I pause to listen.

Maybe that’s what I need today:
To stand in that circle again, to feel the grass under my bare feet,
and to remember that I carry that energy with me.
I always have.

FYI Fred chose the way the people in the circle look, including himself. He also chose the artful way to type ChatGPT on his own, as a “Flair”.