Stars Above

It was the middle of summer, and the night air in the Adirondack Mountains still managed to drop near freezing. I was huddled together with a group of other scouts at the top of a small mountain, our sleeping bags and sweatshirts clutched tight for warmth. We did not go out there on a dare or on a lark. There on a cold summer night, far from the light pollution of modern city life, I fell absolutely in love with the sky. Above us expanded an infinite sea of stars. Low on the horizon a band of stars stood out. It was my first time seeing the milky way, our own galaxy. I spent much of the night in silence, staring up in wonder. My place not just in the world, but in the universe in flux. The night sky has always been a special place for me, there across vast distances of space is where dreams are born.

I have always had a fascination with nature, God’s handiwork as it were. I excelled in natural sciences (except geology, go figure) in school. I have been fascinated with biology, with DNA, thunderstorms, wildlife, and dinosaurs, and space for almost as long as I have had words for them. It was the sky, a vast, never-ending, constantly changing canopy, that always seemed to draw my attention. The brilliant blue skies, fiery sunsets and vast fields of stars almost always catch my imagination. The night sky was a cornucopia of wishes, a treasure trove of stars, planets and far-off galaxies, there was no better playground for me to wander through.

Looking out my window today, I see that same great big sky and it instills that same sense of wonder. When I run into a creative wall while writing one of my stories my first instinct is to look up and imagine. It was in the sky that I found an escape from the stress, dysphoria, and the pains of living a lonely half life. In my most painful moments, the stars were there for me to cry out to. As I achieved my dreams I would look to that endless horizon of possibilities and laugh, and smile, and twirl. Under the watch of the night sky I have created many stories, under a sea of stars my friends and I speak of loves lost and dream of better days yet to come. Though many of my friends and family are scattered across the globe, I look at the sky and I know that no matter how far apart we all are, we can all look up and still see the same stars.

The stars inspire much within my heart, a longing for adventure, a desire to know the unknowable. It stirs my imagination in ways that I cannot fully put into words. Worlds unexplored. Unearthly beauty created from chaos and violence. A single point of light in a vast darkness that shines brightest when joined by a multitude. That is what I think about when I look up at the sky and fall silent. What lies out there? In all of that vastness, in all of that space? I cannot know, but I can imagine, I can dream.