A Sky Full of Stars

Some nights I consider myself a star gazer. Other nights I’m a moon gazer. Most nights, I sit out on the stoop and I become a space gazer. You know, the kind where you always have to say, “Earth to Linda!” and wave your hands around. Space gazing is relaxing. It’s dark outside and you don’t really have to focus on anything, and then I am completely alone with my thoughts, or else I shut my brain off and it’s still everywhere.

Imagine this.

You’re outside, on a grassy knoll. It’s completely dark around you, and there’s a soft warm breeze dancing in your hair. You lay down. With every sense of your body, you feel the prickles of the grass against your neck, your arms, and your legs. There are no mosquitoes to bite you. You are all alone in this tiny knoll, and up above you is the massive sky. You gaze up, up, up. First of all you can only see the brightest stars. You pick out the simple constellations, and make some of your own up. Then, the more you look, the deeper you see. There are more stars, and more, and the sky seems to fill up right before your eyes. The more you see, the smaller you feel, until you are just one human in a tiny pocket of land, in a massive eternal space full of stars. 

I love that feeling of smallness.

I’m out in Oregon now. School starts after Labor Day, and I’m a mixture of emotions. Scared, nervous, excited, calm. Pray for me as I begin this new adventure.