The Night Sky

From time to time, I believe in the soulful rejuvenation of time away. By yourself, with your family or friends, with your pet, or however it looks to you, I believe that getting away from the day-to-day helps foster creativity, connection, healing, inspiration, and rest.

I decided to take a few days at the spur of the moment. I had a credit at the YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park to use by the end of their slow season. I was just itching for some time away, and the weather and driving conditions were as good as it would get in a mountain town in February. I said YES to my intuition and went. The time away was reviving. I struggle at times, as a single woman working on my own terms living with just my dog (not “just” my dog, but Rene the Grey), to justify “getting away” because I don’t have all the other life qualities that might make getting away that much more special-a spouse and kids, a M-F 8-5 job, etc. And then I remind myself that I am living my own life and not the lives of other people and I get myself in check.

However, I do suffer from (non-clinical) seasonal affective disorder-meaning, I have diagnosed myself that I am just in a crummy mood during the months of January and February. I don’t ski or snowboard so I don’t have that enjoyment outdoors in the winter, so beyond the daily walk in many layers I don’t do a whole lot in nature in the winter time.

I won’t go into all the details of my time away-I won’t go into detail about feeling the most “me” than I have felt in a while, or how I balanced work, play and rest, or how I managed to run one morning, finally, run again without wanting to give up-But the one thing I want to write about is the night sky.

I fell in love with the night sky only just a few years ago. When I was living in Montrose on 3 acres in the country, the night sky was my companion for almost 2 years. I would turn off the porch lights at night with a cup of tea (or glass of wine) and sit on the steps and just look up. I could see the stars, galaxies, meteors….I pictured family and friends on the other side of the slope under the same night sky. I felt interconnected to my loved ones far, and to the people I was meeting near in my new community. This year, in Estes, I excitedly waited for the night to fall. I hoped the night wouldn’t be a cloudy one. The night sky did not disappoint! The cabin I was staying in was secluded enough and there were almost no lights. I turned off the porch light and stood outside with my tea and just stared up. It took a few minutes for my eyes to adjust and when they did….it was a constellation of stars. Not only crisp and clear but close, like I could reach out and touch them. I honestly saw a fabric of stars covering me and I felt safe, protected, loved, and totally and completely like myself. I became one with the sky and with it I knew…I AM EXACTLY WHERE I AM...WHERE I NEED TO BE. I AM IN THE RIGHT PLACE, AT THE RIGHT TIME. I couldn’t do justice of the night sky in a picture. So, I want to share with you some inspiring quotes that I hope will bring the inspiration of the night sky forward!

“Before we invented civilization our ancestors lived mainly in the open out under the sky. Before we devised artificial lights and atmospheric pollution and modern forms of nocturnal entertainment we watched the stars. There were practical calendar reasons of course but there was more to it than that. Even today the most jaded city dweller can be unexpectedly moved upon encountering a clear night sky studded with thousands of twinkling stars. When it happens to me after all these years it still takes my breath away.” - Carl Sagan-Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space 

“He was there alone with himself, collected, tranquil, adoring, comparing the serenity of his heart with the serenity of the skies, moved in the darkness by the visible splendors of the constellations, and the invisible splendor of God, opening his soul to the thoughts which fall from the Unknown. In such moments, offering up his heart at the hour when the flowers of night inhale their perfume, lighted like a lamp in the center of the starry night, expanding his soul in ecstasy in the midst of the universal radiance of creation, he could not himself perhaps have told what was passing in his own mind; he felt something depart from him, and something descend upon him, mysterious interchanges of the depths of the soul with the depths of the universe.”- Victor Hugo-Les Misérables