First star I see tonight
I wish I may, I wish I might
Have this wish I wish tonight"
A few years back, I went camping with my friends Angie and Sarah. One night during our camping trip, we went for a walk. We took a path we've never taken before and just walked the unknown trail while talking about life. At some point, we reached what I thought was probably a meadow, as I couldn’t exactly see what it was because it was so dark, and we only had the star light to guide us, but I say meadow because as we walked in the beginning of that trail, the trees covered any view of the night sky, but in this meadow, where blades of grass brushed by our legs up to our knees, the view above us became very clear and open. We could see the outline of the trees surrounding this open range, and above us the stars shined brightly. In all my years of living, I have never seen so many stars in my entire life. All the nights I have seen stars combined could not compare to those few minutes under that sky that one night. It was beautiful. I thought I had walked into another world, one that I believed could only exist in dreams, but here I was, with two friends, forging a memory that will never be forgotten. It was beautiful.
I love the idea of driving late at night with a friend or two, and just driving out toward the country, away from the city and man-made lights and drive until we reach some place distant, some place secluded. Then, once we’ve reached that unknown destination, park the car, and walk underneath the beauty of the heavens above. I've done this on occasion, and can only hope to do more.
Sadly though, as the cities grown larger, and the woods grow smaller, I can't help but believe that some day, not in the near future, but in the distant future, generations after I'm gone, that the future generation will not be able to view such beauty as I have.
"In the country the darkness of night is friendly and familiar, but in a city, with its blaze of lights, it is unnatural, hostile and menacing. It is like a monstrous vulture that hovers, biding its time." - Somerset Maugham
"Once a source of wonder - and one half of the entire planet's natural environment - the star-filled nights of just a few years ago are vanishing in a yellow haze." – Apple Guardians of the Night blog.
"Second star to the right, and straight on till morning." - Peter Pan
"The stars are the street lights of eternity." - Author Unknown
"There they stand, the innumerable stars, shining in order like a living hymn, written in light." - N.P. Willis
"Teach me your mood,
O patient stars.
Who climb each night,
the ancient sky.
leaving on space no shade, no scars,
no trace of age, no fear to die."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Poet
"Night, a more perfect day." - Arthur Symons "Alla Dogana"
"The stars are the jewels of the night,
and perchance surpass anything which
day has to show." - Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)
"The beauty of heaven, the glory of the stars, an ornament giving light in the highest places of the Lord." — Sirach 43:9
"It seemed to be a necessary ritual that he should prepare himself for sleep by meditating under the solemnity of the night sky... a mysterious transaction between the infinity of the soul and the infinity of the universe." - Victor Hugo
"May all the stars hang bright above her dwelling,
Silent as though they watched the sleeping earth!"
— Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 'Dejection: An Ode,' 4 April 1802.'
"We had the sky, up there, all speckled with stars, and we used to lay on our backs and look up at them, and discuss about whether they was made, or only just happened—Jim he allowed they was made, but I allowed they happened; I judged it would have took too long to make so many."
— Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, 1884.
"Is not God in the height of heaven? and behold the height of the stars, how high they are!" — Job 22:12
"Night has brought to those who sleep, only dreams they can not keep" – Enya
"The night is even more richly coloured than the day...If only one pays attention to it, one sees that certain stars are citron yellow, while others have a pink glow or a green, blue and forget-me-not brilliance. And without my expiating on this theme, it should be clear that putting little white dots on a blue-black surface is not enough." — Vincent van Gogh, letter to sister, September 1888
"These blessed candles of the night." - William Shakespeare, referring to stars, Merchant of Venice
"One summer night, out on a flat headland, all but surrounded by the waters of the bay, the horizons were remote and distant rims on the edge of space. Millions of stars blazed in darkness, and on the far shore a few lights burned in cottages. Otherwise there was no reminder of human life. My companion and I were alone with the stars: the misty river of the Milky Way flowing across the sky, the patterns of the constellations standing out bright and clear, a blazing planet low on the horizon. It occurred to me that if this were a sight that could be seen only once in a century, this little headland would be thronged with spectators. But it can be seen many scores of nights in any year, and so the lights burned in the cottages and the inhabitants probably gave not a thought to the beauty overhead; and because they could see it almost any night, perhaps they never will." - Rachel Carson
"If people sat outside and looked at the stars each night, I'll bet they'd live a lot differently." - Bill Watterson
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