by Z Surakji
Looking up during the night really works wonders on you. A blanket is thrown atop the sky, darkening the planet to reveal infinite little fires bedazzling it. We really take it for granted don’t we? When you really give it some thought, they’re not just a few lights that twinkle at night, are they? They’re literally bodies of immense power blazing in space. Beacons of energy ruling over kingdoms I’ll never see. Burning literally for millions of years, beaming out their rays as wide as the galaxy could spread, and it just so happens they reach my eyes.
It’s cliché, really, I’m well aware.
Mine aren’t the first to witness this spectacle, nor will they be the last. But for now, in this moment, it truly is spiritual. Each little dot hanging on this endless black canvas really does something so simple yet so infinitely wondrous.
It makes a connection!
No, no, really, think about it. When I gaze at one star, the light reaching me is establishing a connection that’s spanning millions of light-years. A straight line shooting across space and time, like an arrow piercing through existence with my sights for bull’s-eye.
It’s like a little, well okay not really little, but relatively little message that’s saying “Hey look, I exist…ed?” Not all stars live long enough to have their light reach me. Ironic coming from a being that may or may not live to see 30.
Ha.
But also what’s more fascinating is this journey of light-years my eyes perform whenever they shift from one star to another. It’s terrifying when you realize it. Terrifyingly beautiful, of course.
When I take my eyes off one star to look at another, I’m actually looking at two distinct celestial bodies that are lifetimes away from each other! Even the nearest little dots are actually solar systems that may have never had contact. But here I am, on this little planet, acting like a fixed point in this cross-galactic triangle.
In fact, when I turn my head to look at another point, I’m leaping across galaxies and constellations. Effortlessly, I’m passing worlds I’ll never know of nor be able to visit just to take a look at another spot in the heavens.
It’s admittedly pitiful.
Blessed enough to spot the armies of little lights emerging whenever the sun sets, a blissful bombardment of majesty and emotion, but far from being destined to witness their magnificence up close.
It’s as if the longer you stare, the less shy they begin to feel, stepping out from hiding to greet you as you start to make out more of them in your field of vision.
What do I gain, really? Marveling at them like my ancestors probably did, why can’t I look away? The only real difference between each one is how bright it burns through the veil of night.
So why am I so in love?
© Z Surakji 2023-06-25