Reader! Bear with my passions a little longer! The stars tonight are breathtaking! The crescent moon hangs in full view, laid bare by the absence of ghostly clouds tonight, surrounded by a hundred million souls burning in the sky!
I went out tonight to get the mail, since we'd all forgotten earlier today to stop at the mailbox. Our driveway is long, unpaved, with an unplanned but welcome grass path down the middle, perfect for walking along. I'd slipped on some old snug-fitting shoes, threw my jogging jacket on over a t-shirt, and left the house. Immediately I noticed the stars and became overwhelmed by their shining beauty! I ran back to the door and hollered for someone to turn off the flood lights...once it was completely dark out, I felt like I was witnessing the miracle of star birth as each one came more clearly into sight. The moon reigned kindly over its orchestra of beetles, crickets, and night frogs. Music. Unfathomable pleasure received from being a part of nature.
I know reader, I know I'm not branching out much right now. Stars, stars, stars, they fill my writing. I sat down earlier and began to write about my thoughts on quantum mechanics and the different dimensions of existence, but then thought, who wants to read this stuff, save a physics professor? I saved it as a draft. If I get requests, I may post it. But the stars, reader...the stars! I'll continue my story and then later perhaps write about politics and news and informative things......(laughter).
After taking my time strolling (and, I will admit here, skipping) down the driveway, I reached the road and opened my mailbox. Take the mail out, turn around and go home, it's a simple process. But you know something else I love, reader? I love fields!!! And when I reached the mailbox I realized that whoever owned the massive continent of a field that is beyond our little red flag had just mowed it! Open field...no fence...couldn't stay too long, mom would worry...Hell, I took off running!
Thank God the ground was nearly level to perfection, because I never did look down. A wide open field, lightning bugs glowing like gods, and the stars...the moon...the MOON, reader!! Do you see it?? Do you understand what I'm speaking about?? Heavenly beings! Beings that reside in the heavens! Reader, please, feel my passion and let it spur your own! The night sky is beautiful! I kept spinning around, circling, tracing constellations, throwing my arms in the air and wishing I could fly away!
...oh reader...there is so much good. So much beauty. There is equally as much bad, and equally as much hatred and shame, but listen, reader. We focus too much on those negative qualities of life. They are a part of life, we cannot run away from them. But step outside every once and a while. I'm not recommending you fall down and worship the trees (though I also would't stop you), but I'm encouraging you to acknowledge the good and the beautiful. God, I'm being so redundant in my writing. I've said this all a thousand times. Please bear with my passions.
At two in the morning tonight, think of me. I will be outside star-gazing. When all the house lights are out, when the traffic noises have ceased, when the midnight birds sing their most beautiful, secret songs...I will be out there.
After I'd pushed my time in the field -- worried that my family might wonder where I'd gotten off to -- I walked back to my house, still only looking down to avoid tumbling into the ditch between the field and the road. I felt inspired by the night. She is mysterious and reserves her most beautiful treasure for those who keep their eyes on her. She has always had my eyes, and I love her.
"...And that the moon spins round the earth and on with the earth, is equally wonderful,
And that they balance themselves with the sun and stars is equally wonderful."
"I stay a while away O night, but I return to you again and love you.
...
I love the rich running day, but I do not desert her in whom I lay so long..."
"This is thy hour O soul, thy free flight into the wordless,
Away from books, away from art, the day erased, the lesson done,
Thee fully forth emerging, silent, gazing, pondering the themes thou lovest best,
Night, sleep, death and the stars."
- Walt Whitman
Leaves of Grass
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