I was up early this morning and looked out the window – really looked – and could see a crystal clear sky full of stars. I didn't realize that the Big Dipper turned on its side quite like that in the eastern sky at 5am. Sometimes I experience this sense of disorientation, as if I can feel the rotation and tilt of the planet. What I am beginning to see is the night sky of fall. Soon Orion will be clear on the eastern horizon and the Pleiades will be visible in the deep quiet of the night. If I could see further south at twilight I would see Scorpio beginning to rise.
These are harbingers of the season as much as the autumnal colors and light frost on my lawn. There is an inexorable majesty to the shifting constellations of the night sky because it so clearly reveals to me that I live on a planet circling a sun in a galaxy that resides in what we can only call the universe. I find comfort in starry sky - the cold, endless universe of darkness that is actually filled with countless stars and planets. The feeling of awe that sweeps through my heart hushes the fevered worries of my brain, stops the mental checklists and therein lays a sense of peace and joy.
Nature insists on mindful participation. I am happy to oblige.
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