Turkey Part 2 - Nature's Light Show (and other entertainment)

“When you wish upon a star,
makes no difference who you are.
Anything your heart desires
will come to you.
Like a bolt out of the blue,
fate steps in and sees you through.
When you wish upon a star,
your dreams come true.”               - Jimini Cricket, Pinocchio

The first few days at Le Jardin, we were treated to a special kind of evening entertainment, courtesy of Mother Nature: the annual Perseid Meteor Shower, which peaks on 12 and 13 August. I had not had a chance to watch the August sky for years, as Kharkiv is not the kind of place where you can easily see stars at night. But looking out over the Mediterranean, we had a wide, clear sky to watch for “shooting stars.”

Tuesday evening, 11 August, after the sun went down, we sat on beach chairs at the water’s edge and just looked up. We saw a few faint streaks, but then, around 9:30 p.m., we caught a bright streak of fire across the sky. And we all made wishes.

The next night, 12 August, we again settled on beach chairs and awaited what we expected to be an awesome show. Like the night before, we saw a few faint streaks before being again treated to a brief, but very bright, red streak of light across the sky. And we all made wishes.

We expected more that evening, but it wasn’t to be. Later that night, however, I had trouble sleeping. So around 3:30 a.m. Thursday morning, I got out of bed and went out on the balcony to just sit for a while and watch the sky. Sure enough, I was rewarded with about five more obvious meteors. And I made wishes.

Why Wish Upon a Star?

Legend has it that the practice of wishing upon a shooting star originated in ancient Greece. The philosopher and scientist Ptolemy suggested that the gods occasionally peered down at the Earth, and when they did so, it caused a gap through which a star could fall. He reasoned that this indicated that the gods were paying attention to people on the Earth at that moment, so it was a fortuitous time to make a wish.

We make wishes upon stars, when we toss a coin into a fountain or well, when we blow out candles on a birthday cake, and in many other situations. In such instances, we feel that some kind of special magic is at play that can make our wish come true. In Istanbul, we came across a place where you are supposed to insert your thumb into a hole and turn your hand in a complete circle while making a wish.

While there is probably no special magic in stars, fountains or holes in columns, there is the matter of belief and the power our beliefs can have. We WANT to believe that some kind of power can make our dreams come true and help us achieve our desires. If we believe that some external thing or event has the power to help deliver our wishes, it gives those wishes strength, at least in our hearts and minds.

I think this is related to Power of Intention, which I have mentioned occasionally in previous posts. The idea is that we create our lives, manifest what we want in our lives, in cooperation with a creative, universal intelligence (God, if you prefer). What you think about and talk about the most, what you give the most energy to, is what you manifest in your life, whether you realize it or not.

While wishing on a star might not be the most effective way to put the Power of Intention to work for you, it certainly can’t hurt.

Human Entertainment

Those early morning streaks that I saw from the balcony were the end of nature’s show. So for the rest of the time, we relied on the resort’s entertainment crew to do the job. For the next several nights, after our regular post-dinner walk, we enjoyed dance shows in the resort’s amphitheater.

The first was a dance troupe that performed traditional Turkish dances. This group was probably the most technically talented of the lot. They included a dance of whirling dervishes, as well as some delightfully wicked belly dancing.

The next night featured a group from Cuba that performed salsa and other Cuban dances. They were entertaining, but not as good as the first or third groups.

The third night featured a drum and tap-dance group that was supposedly from Moldova. This group was easily the most creative and unique of the three, and I enjoyed them a lot.

Other nights featured live music, beach parties, and other kinds of entertainment. But we were not much for late-night parties or shows because we were generally exhausted from our full days of sun and sea.

Throughout each day, the resort’s entertainment crew (animators, as they call them) provided games and activities for all ages. We liked doing aqua-aerobics in the sea, and there were other kinds of fitness activities, daily water polo games in the big pool, football (soccer) kicking challenges, and many other activities.

You have to work really hard to be bored at such a place.

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Here is a short video of the 2015 Perseid meteor shower (not my video):