Stars

09/14/2023

Stars. Tonight is the first night I've seen the stars in so long. The bright lights of the city block the thousands of fusion factories in the sky. But mostly, I forget to look up. I used to look up a lot, and I dreamt of what the stars could bring me. I used to think that if a time came when I'd stop looking up so often, it's because I had found better things to do on Earth.

Tonight I didn't look at the stars with intention, a particularly bright one just caught the corner of my eye (it actually wasn't a star, it was Jupiter). It prompted me to look up, and though the streetlights were bright, there were stars breaking through. I was instantly reminded of their power. I was reminded of who I was...who I am. I was reminded of who I could still be. I had gotten used to not looking up, not because I had better things to do, but because I had gotten used to not dreaming.

The stars remind me that it's okay to not have a plan. It is okay to be confused. When you gaze at the stars, you live in all moments of time at once. Our stars never change. The stars of our past are the stars of our future. Whatever path we choose to go down, they'll be there just the same. It is true we are all made of the stuff of stars, and we will all end up as wandering atoms exploring our universe in the end.

Not too long ago, people thought our solar system was all that there is. There was the earth and the sun and the moon and a few planets. Now we know this is not true. Our solar system is not all that there is. Because of the expansion of the universe however, there will come a time when the beliefs of the past become reality. Everything that isn't us will expand away from us quicker than the speed of light. Our observable universe will be empty.

Look up. Look up at the stars whilst we all exist in the same universe. Look up whilst the atoms that make up you are still arranged in such a fashion that they can think and be curious. We are the method in which the universe discovers itself.