Look at the Stars

Tomorrow, I want to stop for a moment... 

Not because life suddenly becomes less complicated.
Not because the world stops spinning.
But because the sky is going to remind us, once again, how small we are… and how incredibly lucky we are to be here to witness it. 

There is something about looking up that has always made me feel different.

When I was a child, I used to lie alone in the garden behind our house, staring up at the enormous ceiling of the Earth.

I would look for shooting stars.

I would search for shapes hidden between the stars.

Sometimes I imagined pictures in the sky. Sometimes I simply watched.

And somehow, lying there beneath that endless darkness, I felt completely at peace.

No expectations.

No noise.

No tomorrow.

Just me and the universe.

I didn't understand much about stars back then. I certainly didn't understand how unimaginably far away they were, or how much time had already passed before their light reached my eyes.

I only knew that looking at them made me feel small in the most beautiful way.

And perhaps that's why moments like tomorrow's eclipse still make something inside me pause.

There is something humbling about knowing that we are witnessing a moment that the universe has been patiently arranging for an incredibly long time.

And suddenly I find myself thinking about a song I have always loved.

“Look at the stars, look how they shine for you…” 

Maybe that's what growing older really is.

Not losing the child we once were…

but learning how to find them again.

Because today, I need glasses to see some of the magic I once saw so easily.

My eyes have changed.

My body has changed.

My life has changed.

The garden from my childhood is no longer the same garden.

And I am certainly not the same girl lying in the grass beneath those stars.

Time does that.

It changes the landscape.

It changes us.

Sometimes so slowly that we don't notice until one day we look back and realize just how far we've travelled.

But perhaps that's exactly why we should pay attention to the little things.

The sky.

A shooting star.

The moon.

A song that suddenly brings back an old memory.

A laugh that catches us completely by surprise.

A beautiful sunset.

A cup of coffee enjoyed in silence.

A moment with someone we love.

The little things are not really little.

They are the pieces that make up a life.

So tomorrow, I'll look up.

I'll put on my glasses.

And I'll watch the sky do something extraordinary.

And perhaps, for a few minutes, I'll be that little girl again…

lying in the garden,

searching for pictures among the stars,

wondering what might be waiting beyond them.

And I'll remind myself:

We don't get forever.

We don't know how many more eclipses we will see.

We don't know how many sunsets remain, how many songs we'll hear for the first time, or how many ordinary moments will eventually become the memories we would give anything to experience again.

So look up.

Look closely.

Be amazed.

Laugh.

Love.

Make memories.

Notice the magic while it is happening.

Because one day, even the things we think we will always have

will become memories too.

And perhaps that is the real lesson written across the sky:

Don't wait for life to become extraordinary before you appreciate it.

Sometimes the extraordinary is already above your head.

You just have to remember to look.

- Merry -