One Starry, Starry Night

I Am a child of the Universe…no less than the trees and the stars. As a young girl, I used to internalize this line of Desiderata each time I reach the bottom of our stairs. My mom hung a beaten-looking poster of the poem which never failed to catch my attention each time I reach the bottom step or was about to ascend the stairs. In fact, as soon as learned how to read, it was one of the first poems I memorized. All because it tells me I am one among the stars.

On clear nights, I remember how our dad used to take us outside after dinner to teach the basics of constellations, his fat finger connecting each point to reveal the Belt of Orion, Little Dipper or the Big Dipper.  How I love those nights! And the nights I would imagine shooting stars dropping on the vacant lot adjacent to ours. I wished then I could see them closer to check whether they indeed have 5 points the way I drew them then.

Anyway, I was again that child last Saturday, Feb 23, when me and younger sister Carms went to Mall of Asia’s San Miguel by the Bay for the Starry, Starry Night (An Evening of Stargazing). We were supposed to attend the 4:30PM workshop at the Science Discovery Center but Carms came home almost  noon that day from work and I did not bother wake her up at 3 lest I might be accused of sleep deprivation. So we got there just in time for the stargazing. There was something different there lining up for the 6 telescopes showing different planets and stars. People from all walks of life, of all ages gathered to witness the throbbing wonders that have been there all along. And it was almost surreal to find a crowd of people whose fists are not punched to the air in protest but are raised and poised to where the Winter Triangle or Orion was. Right that evening, people were awed as fireworks competed with the heavenly bodies, which are both mammoth and myriad. Long after the last ash of the fire display fell and disappeared however, Sirius has remained as the brightest star up there, still blinking…beckoning. Then people became aware which was the real thing. We also got to see Pleiades (a great cluster of stars), Orion Nebula, Mars and magnificent Saturn with it’s mighty ring.

I’ve been raring for these moments. Moments when one look at the sky, you could almost see God. God right there telling us that He’s way bigger than all our daily struggles combined, even bigger than the worldwideweb, or Abalos’ alleged bribe to Neri or the damage caused by the ongoing La Nina. As my spirit is fed by these moments, I am inspired to go on in life despite many odds anyway the stars I have great affinity with since I was a child, are there with me. Always. To quote a line from prayer (found in Fr. Orbos’ Inquirer Moments)…

Stir us O Lord
To dare more boldly
To venture seas where storms shall show thy mastery
Where losing sight of land
We shall find the stars.