DON'T WORRY OVER THE STARS

Tonight was the night.  The night for the stars! Although she spent most nights sleeping, every now and then there came a night that awakened something in her that simply would not let her sleep- wonder. She pulled out her telescope and packed it into her suitcase and her sketchbooks too. Grabbing the picnic blanket she ran into the cool night air, breathing it all in, she began to walk. It certainly wasn't easy getting to the place of wonder. The trails took her through forests, through valleys, and into the mountains. However the night’s crackling leaves and whispering winds did not bother her- for tonight! Tonight there was wonder to be found.

At long last she made it. Spreading out her blanket she began to set up her telescope as she softly hummed to herself. She could see the stars from where she stood, but soon she would know them by name! She had waited all day, hardly able to wait for the wonder of the twinkling lights in the sky. Taking a deep breath she peered through her telescope. Expecting a kaleidoscope of light, she saw… only darkness? Twirling with her telescope in her hand she looked for the stars. They were nowhere to be found. She gasped, where had they gone?! Her eye captivated by the telescope could not look away, what had happened to the stars?! They had just been there! The light! The wonder! Slowly fear began to fill her as she imagined a world without stars, a world without light. Would the sun rise in the morning? Would she ever see it set again? Fearful, but refusing to look away she earnestly searched the night sky- where were they! Where were her friends? Where was the wonder?! She had been so close and come so far for it, and now? Absolutely nothing. She felt as though all the dreams within her had become only nights of rest, and nothing more. She softly began to cry for the world’s loss of wonder, when she heard a voice behind her. “Ahemm.” It said. Taking her eye away from her telescope and opening her other, she turned. Refusing to look at the dark sky, she looked at the stranger’s feet. A moment of silence passed between them.

“Did you come to look at the mountains?” The stranger asked. Looking up for the first time, the girl was bewildered. The mountains?! Of course not! “I didn’t come to see mountains tonight sir. I came to greet the stars.” She replied as she held back tears. “Well, then what’s stopping you?” Shocked even more, by what this man could clearly not see, she thought. The sky! It had no stars in it to meet or greet! Before she could respond, the stranger spoke again. “I suppose, if you want to see the stars, you ought not to gaze through your telescope at a mountain.” With that, he shrugged his shoulders and continued on his way down the well worn path of travelers.

Walking back to her telescope, she peered through it's lens and tilted it upwards. Indeed, The stars hadn’t disappeared, only her perspective had.