Have you ever been driving on a dark-saturated country road at night and pulled over when an open area with no buildings or lights met you? Did you turn the car lights to see what you could see? If you have, you will have encountered a fantastic sight. The dark of night with no city lights on a moonless night is one of the darkest occurrences on the planet. You can’t see one foot in front of you – you can’t even see the hand you hold up in front of your face. There is a sense of the hugeness, the wildness of this planet and perhaps some fear enters in – perhaps. Real darkness can be scary to some of us. (Imagine what it is to be blind!)
We soak in the dark for several minutes, possibly enthralled, possibly uncomfortable as we are now aware that this planet, this life, holds its own control over our lives. But, even knowing the chaos, the control, the scariness, we get out of our car to experience it more…mostly because we have already glimpsed the best part of the tranquil side of the night’s darkness. We couldn’t miss it after our eyes adjusted a little, and we have to get out to look at it properly. As we exit the car we automatically look up where the magic is happening. A plethora of randomly spaced sparkles meet our eyes, and we gasp a little at its magnitude and its beauty. The brightness of the stars in the sky do not diminish the dark of the earth like the moon would, so their beauty is spellbinding. We stay there for as long as we can – until the mosquitoes start attacking in earnest or creatures creeping up on us goes from our subconscious to our conscious. We reluctantly climb back into our car and sit for a little longer looking out our windows until our earthly time limits take back our lives, and we must leave this wonderworld of startling, awe-inspiring, sparkling road maps in the skies (knowing they will continue to hover above no matter what time of the day or night it is).
If we are lucky, the moon will come out of its hiding place behind heavy clouds and flood the countryside with its nightlight abilities, and what was invisible is now spread out in glorious splendor. Except the for the nearby stars.
I know of two stories of people who lived in big cities who were amazed by the stars on their first trip outside a large city. The stars are not visible within the bounds of city lights. In my story everyone in the car fought over who had to drive because the rest of them wanted to look out the windows the entire trip.
Seeing the stars lit up in their intrinsic domain reminds us of the wondrousness of life that is out there, and how we often forget it is there – or we forget to look for it; and some of us never see it. It reminds us that we can never know the full joy of the warmth of the sun, if we have never experienced the cold of winter or a chill rain. If we take the “dark” times as a means of learning to see the beauty and blessings of the remarkable things in this life, we may more easily remember that when our present situation seems unbearable, we can know that it is merely an opportunity to find our true lights within.
Don’t forget to “smell the roses” or look up at the night sky whenever you can. It’s the wonder in the planet that reminds us of our smallness, yet amazingness, and that there is a greater Being out there; and both give us peace, joy, enthusiasm, creative thoughts and flood us with the confidence to meet another day.
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