Stars

 

It rained hard this evening. A thunder rain. A scale lower than a thunderstorm on my scale. Heavy rain with its attendant lightning but no howling wind. In any case there was raid but it was the lightning that stole the thunder. The building next door was struck by lightning twice. The glass façade of the neighbouring buildings went blinding white everytime it struck. On the radio PSAs about flood evacuation centers and flooding reminder had started coming on. This morning when I sent my youngest to his kindergarten I had to maneuver around a fallen tree limb that would have severely dent a car or cause serious injury to a motorcyclist. The wind and rain had finally caught up with the grand old tree it would seem. The monsoon is finally here. Get your raincoats out and bugout bags ready. It is not the time for swimming. 

I left office sometime after midnight after catching up on some work and with things with Man. I did not notice when rainclouds had finally done its business over Klang Valley and had finally went to bed because what greeted me when I exited my car at home was a sight so beautiful that I just had to stay out there and brave the cold wet night a few moments longer to just stare at the clear night sky where the stars are all out in force. The sky was sprinkled with stars that normally one could not see with the clouds and the artificial light coming from homes and street lights. I can see the many constellations they had taught us back in primary school. They shone bright against the black night sky. There, the big dipper and there be scorpio or something and many others whose names had escaped my sleep-addled mind. The brightest of them all; The North Star. The guiding star. My God. I might not be able to see something like it ever again for no two night sky is the same. Just like no two sunrise is the same. There will be difference and variations in hue and colour. What a glorious sight.

The stars made me think about life and how myopic I can be most of the time. Too cooped up in my all too human issues that I fail to remember that for all the ugliness and sadness we have here on earth we often forget that just overhead beauty lies. It consoles me and humbles me to be reminded that there are things that bigger than me and what ever issues I may have. I think I get it why the ancients looked to the night sky. Looking at it soothes the heart and mind like a balm over a burn. Like a sweet lullaby. Comforting and familiar. It keeps them grounded to the fact that on the grand scale of things we are but insignificant. A mere mote of dust in the almost unending expanse of universe.

I wanted to keep on staring at the sky and let waking dream slowly cover me again like a warm blanket but I had to go in after my neck started to hurt. I hope I get to see such a beautiful sight again. If I do not, I hope I will the memory of this night will stay lodged in my mind for all time. The night the stars came out to play.