STARRY NIGHT

Stargazing is amazing aside from my obsession seeing the sun sets and watching the moon lights at night in new or in full shape – they’re gifts which one’s naked eye can take pleasure in freely. Thanks to my small veranda that I may have direct access keeping up with what’s happening in the outside world especially during night time – where stargazing is just so irresistible.

I’m not a stargazer or an astronomer or an astrologer or a person involved in any of these studies, but just a plain guy who fancies looking at the stars. It doesn’t take a genius to behold the beauty of a starry night – have been stargazing all my life, and for the rest of my life.

This is what you get for staying in the country side – every night is a starry night. Living in big cities is a different scenario although we still see stars from time to time – it’s always cloudy caused by gray gas – nothing but a skyline dominated by smoking factory chimneys. Lucky us because stars are very large and bright, then we can still see them in cloudy sky.

When I moved back in the city, the habit is still there but the joy of seeing stars above isn’t that overwhelming. Not to exaggerate, felt like I could even count on the stars on the fingers of one hand. But not last night – a surprisingly starry sky, uncountable – when stars were just seemingly reachable like picking up apples in the orchard.

Nothing like this has ever happened the many nights before watching stars from my veranda, and so I was very delighted to see a whole constellation. Or a galaxy, who knows? And so I didn’t slip the chance away stargazing all-night until dawn. It was indeed amazing!

Yesterday evening was totally different although the neighborhood was rejoicing loudly for the Khmer New Year. Noise just filled the air – loud music, endless shouts, screams at the top of their voices, and yet I felt at peace still seeing the starry night before me. It was so beautiful!

One starry night a way which brought me back to my childhood days filled with peculiar imagination – an odd desire or dream of collecting a bucket of stars. I find it worth reminiscent my innocence as a child. Sometimes or many times, we tend to put that childhood memories into seclusion when we grow up; because we have grown matured. But it’s part of our existence before becoming adults – that needs remembering.

Looking at the stars at night gives me hope despite life’s odyssey. Maybe it’s just me, but it reminds me of the significance of fulfilling dreams big and small. This is where I get my inspiration pursuing all my aspirations in life – from a starry night – a priceless gift from above – in stargazing.

It may be a habit, but I couldn’t go to bed without gazing at the sky. Then I always know if it was a night filled with stars or none at all. And so last night was a real bolt from the blue.

Thank God for another starry night to enjoy and for the message of hope in this world full of despair.

What a starry, starry, starry night!