It came upon a midnight clear when the majesty of the heavens made me feel so small yet immense at the same time. To know I was part of this vast creation, one average person in a population of eight-point-one-billion people. A person of value. An individual with talents.
The stillness of the night a lesson for my soul. Be quiet and breathe in. Let the peace quiet my anxieties instead of listening to the fuss of the holidays and letting it stoke my worries. Perfect place settings, hospital corners on beds, dust-free surfaces do not matter in the grand scheme of things. My days on this earth will be too limited by comparison, I shouldn’t waste a single one.
Away from city lights, in Ontario’s pristine north the sky opens. Thousands of stars, each a mere pinpoint of light laid out in constellations, and beyond them clusters of white, pink and blue. Each star a tiny sun. Each a reminder of that great star two thousand years ago, the Star of the East. The star that led three wisemen from the east to worship a two-year-old boy. The future prince of peace.
Recently the Star of the East was thought to be an alignment of Saturn, Jupiter and the moon, which only adds to the grandeur. The night sky is amazing. Sailors sail by it, lost folks use it to get their bearings, and it’s said stars guide birds on their migrations.
The mysterious heavens are the next frontier. Space exploration and settlement a dream of many scientists and adventures. We’ve already polluted our earth and the skies above; do we need to fill the heavens with our earthly junk too? Let us leave the precious metals on our precious moon. A network of internet satellites nothing more than earthly vanity. Communication needs to be savoured, not circulated at lightening speed. We managed simply fine up until now. It worries me to think what will happen when those satellites become obsolete. I doubt they will be brought back to earth and recycled. Recently, astronomers have complained that these manmade objects are already interfering with our view of the night sky, blocking the light of stars. They have dimmed something so regal.
Let me breathe in the night air. Let the sparkling heavens still me. The plane quietly blinking across the horizon is a travel wish. The peace of flying through the night a sigh. The early morning sun a glow on the eastern horizon and the same sun a smudge on the western horizon. Our little blue planet a speck in the universe.
Clear midnight skies are full of promise while a cloudy, misty night dampens the spirits. The soul cannot soar. It searches for the warmth of a woodstove and artificial light for guidance. Cocooning in the shelter of manmade walls.
Every evening, I part the blinds and look for stars. My telescope set to capture comets. As I snuggle under blankets, it comforting to have the stars above winking at me.
