I was thinking about celestial navigation recently. A friend of mine asked me if I have ever noticed that when you look at the stars at night there are some that are difficult to see...but if you look just a little to the side, they are bright as can be. This remark got me thinking, thinking about stars, thinking about being guided by stars. Thinking about celestial navigation.
Celestial navigation is, by definition, navigation based on observation of the sun, moon, stars, or planets to determine position. In the simplest terms it is a way to look up at a night sky and figure out where you are and in what direction you need to go.
I have, many times, looked up at a night sky to try to figure out where I am. When the weather turns warm I spend time each night on a chaise on my back deck. I like to sit there and look at the sky, the stars, and sip wine and think about where I am....where I am in my life. Invariably it's a reflective time, a time for soul searching, a time to look for answers, a time to look for direction. A personal celestial navigation of sorts.
My eyes will scan the stars, stopping at the bright sparkling ones and drifting along to ponder more distant ones not as bright, not as immediately noticeable. I find them beautiful, so unreachable in a sense, yet at the same time within reach.....as are the many things I ponder while looking at them. Things that have been unreachable I find suddenly, perhaps miraculously, within reach, within my reach.
Legend has it that if you make a wish on a shooting star...it will come true. The funny thing is when one sees a star move across the sky...one has to ask...is it a shooting star or is it, in fact, just a satellite orbiting the Earth? One has to ask themselves, then, am I wishing on a shooting star or just a satellite. A sort of celestial glass half full or glass half empty scenario if I ever heard one, certainly. I will always choose to believe that what I see is a shooting star. How could I not?
Mostly I look at a night sky full of shimmering stars with eyes that are full of humility. The great vastness, the scope, the magnitude of the night sky reduces me to the simple speck I am in this universe. Whatever huge and monumental issue I have been struggling with suddenly becomes monumentally inconsequential in nature, ridiculously small, too small to even worry about really. A problem once deemed unsolvable looks petty and without merit. What fears I have had about my desires seem irrational, seem unrealistic, seem silly. It's good to put things into perspective every now and then and that night sky certainly does just that for me.
I also look at a serene night sky with a lot of hope. For whatever I am wishing for, whatever I am struggling with, whatever it is I want to come to pass....it really is possible in that vast expanse above me. I see so much room there for my little wish to become a reality, I see so much room that I can certainly find among it the one thing I need to complete my life, to make me happy, to make things right.
Certainly the thing I want most is out there, it's right out there sparkling and twinkling and just waiting for my wish in order to make it come true.
Indeed
Celestial navigation is, by definition, navigation based on observation of the sun, moon, stars, or planets to determine position. In the simplest terms it is a way to look up at a night sky and figure out where you are and in what direction you need to go.
I have, many times, looked up at a night sky to try to figure out where I am. When the weather turns warm I spend time each night on a chaise on my back deck. I like to sit there and look at the sky, the stars, and sip wine and think about where I am....where I am in my life. Invariably it's a reflective time, a time for soul searching, a time to look for answers, a time to look for direction. A personal celestial navigation of sorts.
My eyes will scan the stars, stopping at the bright sparkling ones and drifting along to ponder more distant ones not as bright, not as immediately noticeable. I find them beautiful, so unreachable in a sense, yet at the same time within reach.....as are the many things I ponder while looking at them. Things that have been unreachable I find suddenly, perhaps miraculously, within reach, within my reach.
Legend has it that if you make a wish on a shooting star...it will come true. The funny thing is when one sees a star move across the sky...one has to ask...is it a shooting star or is it, in fact, just a satellite orbiting the Earth? One has to ask themselves, then, am I wishing on a shooting star or just a satellite. A sort of celestial glass half full or glass half empty scenario if I ever heard one, certainly. I will always choose to believe that what I see is a shooting star. How could I not?
Mostly I look at a night sky full of shimmering stars with eyes that are full of humility. The great vastness, the scope, the magnitude of the night sky reduces me to the simple speck I am in this universe. Whatever huge and monumental issue I have been struggling with suddenly becomes monumentally inconsequential in nature, ridiculously small, too small to even worry about really. A problem once deemed unsolvable looks petty and without merit. What fears I have had about my desires seem irrational, seem unrealistic, seem silly. It's good to put things into perspective every now and then and that night sky certainly does just that for me.
I also look at a serene night sky with a lot of hope. For whatever I am wishing for, whatever I am struggling with, whatever it is I want to come to pass....it really is possible in that vast expanse above me. I see so much room there for my little wish to become a reality, I see so much room that I can certainly find among it the one thing I need to complete my life, to make me happy, to make things right.
Certainly the thing I want most is out there, it's right out there sparkling and twinkling and just waiting for my wish in order to make it come true.
Indeed
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