My Favorite Constellation

Have you ever stopped to ponder the Universe? It’s overwhelming, really. One billion trillion stars, thirty billion planets, ten billion galaxies; and then there is me. One speck of dust in this great big cosmos. Today I found myself laying under the Colorado sky. Staring at the darkness as the stars blinked back at me and the moonlight kissed my cheeks goodnight. At three AM everyone in my little town of Erie had long been asleep. I looked to my left and there sat my dog Jax, he would have rather been asleep. Yet he sat with me under that clear night sky as I lost track of time and my restless mind jumped from one thought to another.

There was the Big Bang; an explosion that created everything we know. The first rays of light and the first molecules. Yes there was the big bang and of it came Earth, the sun, the moon, and the stars. By and by our Earth birthed life. Grass, trees, humans; we are the offspring of our mother Earth. She is a sister of the stars; a cousin of the moon. And we are all related, tied to one another down to our cores. Stardust is coursing through our veins and illuminating our hearts. Together we are a Galaxy. One big collection of constellations.

Sometimes I like to admire my brothers and sisters, they shine unknowingly. But you, you are my favorite constellation. I love the way you shine; brighter than the rest. So infatuating that Starry Night quivers in the shadow of your magnitude. So grand that if you were to float up into space Orion and Ursa Major would move over and make room just so you could outshine them. So marvelous that all the other galaxies in the universe idolize the Milky Way simply because you are in it. And I am so honored to admit that you are my favorite constellation.

I find that much like this Colorado sky, the longer I observe you the more stars reveal themselves in the distance. They twinkle out of their hiding place as if they suddenly acquired a surge of confidence. Almost as soon as they appear they sink back into the dark; too shy to reemerge from their humble asylum. But I remember them, I reminisce on their brief affairs and wait for them to flutter once more. I think to myself how I could never grow tired of playing hide and seek with the stars.

Now as I lay in bed I can no longer fight off my inevitable slumber and my eyes eventually close. As I lay here, eyes closed, I recreate an image of you in my mind. And finally I say goodnight my constellation. Until tomorrow when I admire you once again. Tonight I will be dreaming of the stars.