it's all about point of view

“Not sure if I am reaching for the stars, or just standing in the dark with my hands in the air. -Anonymous

I imagine a girl, a lady really, driving down a long narrow road. It’s late and the only light for miles, is the headlights of her silver car. The road curves around through the dark forest and massive trees hug the sides of the pavement. As the wind pushes and pulls on her petite car, she wonders if she will stay on the road. The soft music on the radio pairs perfectly with passing wind. As the car lulls along, the trees begin to get larger and larger. Claustrophobia grabs her throat and pushes down on her chest. The forest creates a tunnel of darkness around her and at the end of this collapsing tunnel there is light. As she rumbles on the light gets nearer and the whispers of the forest begin to fade. The end of the forest is nearing and she knows she will miss the odd hug of the lingering trees. Her car shot out of the forest like a silver bullet in the night and she could swear she felt the darkness let go of its hold on her.

Suddenly, she is in the open. The more she drives, the bigger the sky gets. The wind persists, but now it is almost guiding her. Clearing the path for her silver bullet and making sure it reaches its target. She catches a light in her rear view mirror and expects it to be a car. To her surprise, it is just the moon checking in on her and saying hello. Her foot involuntarily eases on the breaks as she craned her neck around to look her old friend in the eyes. The silver bullet comes to a complete stop.

Almost in a trance, she steps out of her car and floats to the edge of the road. Her ankles are greeted by the soft grass and she is embraced by the wind as it tousles her hair. With her car lights off, the moon takes centre stage and illuminates the world around her. She feels the moonlight kiss both of her cheeks, simply greeting a long lost friend. Cast under the spell of the moon she gently walks deeper into the open plain. The grass rises and tickles her knees as she follows her friend’s light.

Peacefully she comes to a stop. For the first time in what felt like ages, she looked up. She did not just look, oh no, she saw. She saw the millions of little stars with each of their little worlds and their little people. Never in her life had she seen this many before. The pure vastness and absolute of the sky before her, causes an overwhelming sense of insignificance to rise into her heart and press on her lungs until she can barely breathe. The longer she stared at the sky, the more she came to understand why people believed in God and angels. For these brilliant specks must be the creation of something much greater, wiser than you and me. The wind sings her, the soft love song that it wrote for the stars, she would have sung along if she knew the words, but all she could do was sway. She is just a small and weak person that only knows so many words, but here she is loved unconditionally by the universe and its slivers of heaven. Little did she know that this moment would stick with her for the rest of her life and be her first thought every morning and her last thought before bed. This moment would live in her dreams forever and her soul will never feel quite as full as it did here among the galaxy.

As she spends more time gazing at the stars, she begins to believe that they are closer than they appear. So close that maybe, just maybe if she stands on her tippy toes and stretches her arms in the air, she could graze one or two. The moon shone on her, almost begging her to try. What would the stars feel like? Would they be as hot as the sun, hotter? Or would they embody a person? Not just any person, a person so bright and strong that nobody thinks otherwise. But you see for a star to be born, a gaseous nebula must collapse. This person is collapsing, crumbling and it’s so brilliant and pure that you can’t look away from the destruction, but only pray that you will survive the aftermath. Every choice she has ever made in life has all led up to here. Here in the middle of a random field being romanced by the very stars. Persuaded by the moon, she puts her hands in the air. Her heart starts to beat quicker. This little and weak person uncurls her fingers as she slowly rolls onto the balls of her feet and eventually her toes, stretching towards the heavens and the worlds beyond this tiny one. She touches nothing but cold air and the night. The spell of the moon has been broken and she is ripped instantly out of her trance and brought back down to earth. Her soul cries out, grieving the loss of the universe. Then she has a world flipping realization. One that will shake the very earth she stands on and rearranges the stars. She realizes that if someone were to drive past her on the lonely road right now, to them she wouldn’t be reaching for the stars, she would simply be standing in the dark with her hands in the air.