My plan was to watch the sunrise, but I
soon realized that it would be a while before that was going to happen, if at
all. There was no orange glow on the horizon that is the sure sign of a rising
sun. Nonetheless, I chose to lie down and look at the sky. I put away my phone
completely for the first time that morning. The glow of a screen and beam of the flashlight were gone. Darkness flowed over the landscape around me, silently and
slowly drowning everything in its path, casting a deep shadow on the earth. And
yet this overwhelming force is not moving without resistance.
In the distance, across the foggy haze of
the pasture, stand a few street lights. A product of mankind, artificial electric light, familiar light. They tear a deep scar in the reign of darkness. Sharp beams and rays cut and
slash everything in their path, valiantly defending one of light’s new
strongholds from the cold dead of night. Yet as I lay in my patch of grass, I
feel far away from this battle. Darkness
swims at my feet, in and out of the tufts of grass, tugging at my extremities.
To my right and to my left it weaves through the tree line. Faint, greyscale
outlines are the only distinction between trees and empty space.
Throughout history, humans have used the
dark to describe the least heavenly places. I can see from where they came. In
this utter darkness, life seems to be seeping out of every pore. The air’s
energy whisked away with the sunset. Every breath stings a little. My body and mind shiver in the cold.. Leaves rustle and
twigs snap to my left. Noises without face or form finally move away. Every
sound in this barren landscape is crisp and clear, and the slightest whisper
shatters utter silence. By now I’m pretty tired of lying in the same
position, I close my eyes. After a few deep breaths I open them
up again.
The night sky is amazing. Very seldom do
we get to simply take time and look at the stars. Massive balls of hydrogen gas
swirl in blistering heat. And in the center of these little light bulbs in
outer space reside the origin of life. Everything that has ever existed has
been inside a star at one point or another. It all begins with hydrogen atoms,
colliding to make helium and, in doing so, producing energy for the universe.
Photons of light fly off in every direction. Only a select few of these light
beams reach my retina. Traveling and battling through years of darkness, they
light up the night sky. It’s refreshing to look up on a clear night and gaze in
wonderment. A portrait of war hangs on the ceiling of the earth at night.
Endless conflicts like the one across the pasture larger and further away than
I can imagine. Stars hundreds of times larger than our sun spin endlessly in
space engaging in battles of their own.
Seeing the stars above I am reminded that
that light was fighting for existence all around me. Light is certain to reappear and dominate
this landscape again at sunrise, pumping warmth, life and energy into
everything it touches and signaling the beginning of a new day.
~ Brendan Foster
