"Only when it is dark enough can you see the stars"
There's a quote that I recently found that I really love, and I want to write it down so that I can remember it when things get hard again.
"Only when it is dark enough can you see the stars"
In the simplest terms, I have always been captivated by the night sky - the stars, the moon, everything about it. I love nights where the sky is so bright, so illuminated by the moon and the stars that you don't notice anything else around you. I love cold winter nights like that especially. Nights that are so bitterly cold that you don't want to walk another step, yet you notice a big, bright white moon filling the sky and the stars twinkling around it. You forget everything else around you. The sky seems to be ten times more clear, the stars ten times more visible, the moon ten times more powerful. I love nights like this, I get lost in the stars. It takes my breath away. Somehow it all seems so magical to me.
But with the myriad of everything I've felt the last 5 months, that quote makes me think about things on a more personal level, a little less literally. When everything seems so dark that you can't even see one step in front of you, when you are too scared, confused, or lost to go on, you can still find something beautiful, something worthwhile to keep hanging on to. And sometimes it's only in those darkest moments that we can come to see these things. There is still beauty to be found in the darkness, you just might have to take the time to look for it. To forget about the cold and look up. Maybe it's learning something new about yourself, maybe meeting someone new, maybe reconnecting on a deeper level with a close friend or family member. No matter how big or small, I believe it's there.
Sometimes it seems so dark, scary, unpredictable. But then your eyes begin to adjust to the "dark" and slowly, the "stars" begin to appear. Sometimes we are so afraid of the dark and the loneliness that can accompany it, that we avoid it as much as we can. But I think the dark can let all of our other senses perk up and absorb things we were once oblivious to in the light. And then the stars appear and we are not quite so lost, no longer wandering blind. Something beautiful can still come from something so dark.
I just wanted to write that down so I can look back and remember it. Life has gotten better, I am getting stronger and there have been many times where I am happy again. It's still hard sometimes, but I am so thankful for the "stars" that I am coming to notice. But I know that life isn't easy and there will be trials again, I'm sure I'll have my heart broken again, I'll cry again, be hurt again, and will be too scared and too lost to want to keep trying. But I want to remember this quote, because I believe it. And maybe someone else can get something out of it too :)