The Night Sky

"The feeling of love is the same feeling that you get when you stare into the moon on a clear night.”

Moonlight is sculpture; sunlight is painting.
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804 - 1864)
Source: The Complete Writings of Nathaniel Hawthorne

Last night was a full moon. The stars were shining like beacons in the sky. There were blocks of clouds floating through, but they only added to the overall picture. One of the things I have learned on this journey is that there is a HUGE world out there and we are pretty tiny parts of it.

One thing that I have learned to REALLY enjoy- and this may sound silly- is to stop during Harley's and my evening walks at the park, sit on a swing, get it moving and just look up at the sky. It has a tri-fold benefit. First, I loved to swing when I was a kid. I had forgotten that. I had gotten so caught up in the "grown up" world that I had forgotten how freeing it is just to sit on that swing and go. Back and forth, back and forth- no worries, just freedom. Flying through the air if only for a few minutes. Second, just looking up at the stars, the moon, the clouds, the sky in its various hues serves to remind me that NOTHING is as big as it feels. When I feel overwhelmed, I just need to look up and realize that though my issues and problems may FEEL big- comparatively, not so much. Finally, when I am feeling lonely, when I miss my son, my sisters, my friends, I can look up at that beautiful sky and know that if they are looking up- they see the same thing so even though we are far apart- we are essentially in the same place.

I am so grateful that I have discovered this connection, that each and every night I can look up and see these things. That I have become mesmerized by the sky and know what it means for me. That I have begun to rediscover the joys I felt as a child with something so simple as a swing.