Moonlight was a drop of water in the ocean. Her family had chosen the name Moonlight because on the evening she was born the moon was bright and a moonbeam had reflected off her oh-so-small form just as she was emerging into the world.
Moonlight swam well. The elder drops complimented her for she knew just how to bend her form when encountering seaweed, sticks, and other water drops. Yet Moonlight thought of herself as just another drop.
But she wasn’t like any other drop. She was a bit smaller and saltier than most. And there was a vast complexity of life swimming within her. Moonlight sensed there was more to life than being a drop among other drops. She just couldn’t figure out what it was.
Moonlight chafed against her seeming insignificance. Yes, she swam well enough. But other drops swam just as well, and some swam better. Sure, she could often sense the magnitude of the life within her, but wasn’t that true of all drops? If there was more to life than being just another drop, she was unable to see it.
Moonlight knew that evaporation would eventually end her existence. Rains brought new drops down from the sky, but all drops were a bit different from one another and the new drops weren’t the same as the ones that had evaporated. Sometimes, Moonlight took comfort in the idea that the new drops might contain a trace of evaporated drops. At other times, Moonlight doubted the new drops carried anything of the drops she had once swum with. She couldn’t know for sure.
Moonlight knew that if she were to evaporate, the world would go on without her. Sometimes this made her unbearably sad. And sometimes it was reassuring to know that even if she never found her reason for being, the world would continue on its way.
One day, when she was feeling particularly dissatisfied, Moonlight dove very deep. She hoped that in the depths she would find that she was more than a drop. Far below the surface, Moonlight encountered creatures she had never seen before. Some of them crawled along the bottom of the ocean. Moonlight was fascinated. Crawling was a possibility that had never occurred to her. And the plant life within the ocean was more varied and beautiful than she could have ever imagined.
Eventually, Moonlight returned to her customary place, just below the ocean’s surface. But she was determined to explore the depths again—there was so much life there that was new to her.
It became Moonlight’s practice to dive into the ocean’s depths every day. She discovered many new creatures and different ways of existing in the ocean. Some creatures changed colors. Others moved by a series of jumps. And still others attached themselves to rocks and never moved again. The ocean was endlessly fascinating! Her explorations of the depths were exciting. When she was immersed in discovering the ocean’s secrets, Moonlight would forget about her search for meaning. But when she returned closer to the surface, she was still Moonlight. She was still just a drop among other drops.
Moonlight swam and swam. Some days she dove deep and some days she floated on the ocean’s surface. At times she was able to enjoy her life, swimming and frolicking with the other drops, while at other times she felt small, insignificant, and sad.
Deep inside, Moonlight sensed that there was more to being a drop than she knew. She became determined to discover what made her special before she evaporated. Her swimming and diving became more determined, more driven. She tried to find new parts of the ocean, places she had never been before, but the very effort of trying to find these places sometimes made it more difficult to reach them. She swam faster, then slower, then faster again. Every effort she made met with the same result. She returned to the same conclusion: “I am Moonlight the drop. I swim and I swim. Someday, I’ll evaporate.”
Eventually, Moonlight grew tired of her efforts. If she had a true purpose, she certainly didn’t know how to find it. She could no longer even convince herself to look. She stopped trying to dive deeper and deeper. It was all for naught.
Moonlight’s very existence became a burden to her. She didn’t have the energy to seek her reason for being. She swam aimlessly, putting less and less effort into finding out what made her a special drop among drops.
Eventually, Moonlight lost all interest in her existence. Being a drop was no longer important to her. She rarely swam, preferring to float wherever the current took her. When she was floating, she enjoyed the feeling of being carried by the currents. Instead of looking for meaning, she felt the rise and fall of the waves.
Some drops noticed that Moonlight had changed and were concerned for her. They missed the old Moonlight, the one who swam with purpose and effort. Her aimless floating made them think that Moonlight had given up on life.
But Moonlight wasn’t giving up on life. She had just given up on her old search. The search hadn’t led anywhere. And it made her tired. Finding out what made her a special drop was no longer important. She was, as she had always been, a drop among other drops. Moonlight was content to spend her days floating and being carried by the currents. She didn’t give much thought to being a drop. She no longer cared.
No matter how strong the currents, or how rough the waves, Moonlight relaxed and enjoyed the ride. She imagined she wasn’t a drop at all, but a part of the currents and the waves. The currents always knew where to take her. And the waves kept the ride interesting.
As she became less interested in being a drop, something else emerged. There was more to Moonlight than she had ever imagined. She was still a drop, but she wasn’t only a drop. She was the currents and the waves. And as currents and waves, she moved in and out of the other creatures of the ocean, allowing them to breathe and move. Although she was the same drop she had always been, life was forever different.
Moonlight was drop, currents, waves, plant life, and sea creatures. Moonlight was ocean. And she always had been.
It took her a little while to get used to being ocean. Moonlight realized that although she was indeed a small and insignificant drop, she wasn’t just a small and insignificant drop. She wasn’t part of something larger. She was something larger. No drops, no ocean. No ocean, no drops.
A moonbeam reflected off Moonlight. She was drop. She was ocean. She is Moonlight.
Wonderful, Dan!
Beautiful!