On my 2021 vision board, I plan to manifest something “better” than “all this” (I write this while gesturing around to the last 10 months). I’m adding “learn to glow from within” to it. Doesn’t that sound like a neat trick? I’ll generate my own source of light, a kind of self-sustaining luminescence, one that’s actually in my control and untouchable by outside forces, both personal and from broader reaches. That and I’d save gobs and gobs of money on skin-resurfacing potions. Yes. This is not a metaphorical manifestation. I’m talking about literally glowing like a Bushwick rave in 2012, baby. Glowing like the bedrooms of your most famous niche Instagram follow. Glowing like the streets of Dyker Heights on Christmas Eve.
And while this is the sort of resolution not uncommon in the Goop era, it all seems more possible than ever, this “glow from within” thing, because the scientists have found it in nature. In October, we learned that platypuses—the duck-billed swimmers from Down Under—can glow with florescence. It turns out that those beautiful freakos aren’t the only mammals catching their light. This month, The New York Times reports, more Australia–based scientists discovered that bare-nosed wombats, hedgehogs, porcupines, echidnas, and something called a bilby emit natural neon elements as well. The animals, they’re positively glowing. These things are lit up like a Christmas tree or when you eat too many carrots.
The thing is, the glow is not visible to the naked eye. I’m sorry to report that the process of discovery involved the same technology successfully applied in episodes of MTV’s Room Raiders—the black light—as well as a UV-light-canceling thingie. So maybe the glow is more metaphorical than I previously thought five minutes ago when I wrote that first paragraph? Maybe it’s really more of a “totally within oneself” kind of thing—as in, you know it’s there, but no one else can see it, and that’s powerful?
Hm, no, hold on. Let me finish reading this article. Do these animals know they can glow? Are they aware of their own radiance? It says scientists can’t say. And they don’t know yet whether the animals themselves can see other animals’ glows either. So maybe the lesson here is that we…all…might have a glow within us? Even though we can’t literally see it? We just need to find the right black light, coupled with UV-canceling technology to unlock it to the naked eye (now I’m firmly speaking metaphorically)? Hm, alright. Sure. Trusting the glow is within us then, even though we can’t see it, seems like an achievable goal for 2021. Happy manifesting!
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