What an absolutely beautiful night
So tonight, not too long ago actually, I decided to take a walk/jog around the block just to get moving and be outside. I'm glad that I went because I don't remember the last time I enjoyed a night like this one. You see, around where I live things are building up but still fairly rural. I'm not so close to any city that there's a ton of light pollution so tonight I really enjoyed seeing the stars. They were quite beautiful. I was about halfway around the block when I got to a really dark part of the neighborhood. So I sat down on the curb and just watched.
Thousands of stars to see. And at my zenith where the sky was at its darkest and stars most plentiful I could even make out the faint whiteness of the Milky Way. Or at least I think I did. While sitting there enjoying the cool evening I was lucky enough to see three shooting stars. I tried to think of the last time when I even saw one and I don't know. And as I sat there on the cool pavement, I wondered if any of those stars have since faded away or if any of the stars was a sun with it's own planets. Sorry, I didn't mean to get so deep with this but I couldn't help it. It just amazes me how far away it all is and how small our planet really is.
So obviously a starry night (no, not the van Gogh painting) is really beautiful to me. As much as I may not like where I live at times I love being able to actually see stars at my dad's and particularly at my mom's house. While I'm excited to get back to JMU, one of the things I'll miss about home is being able to go outside on a dark night and see thousands of stars millions of miles away. Sadly, Harrisonburg and JMU make it just too damn bright to see anything but the very brightest stars. I know many of the 16,000+ students and Harrisonburg residents would hate it but I'd love it if one night all the lights on campus and around town would shut off if only for a few minutes. More realistically I'd love to someday drive out somewhere remote, away from bright lights of cities, towns, schools, and whatnot, to really see a starry sky. I've thought about it too in the Harrisonburg area. Get far away enough from that town and things get very dark I'm sure.
And as if to complement the dark night and the bright stars, the air was so cool and comfortable that it brought out so many bugs and frogs and other creatures to add a natural soundtrack. As I sat I wondered why I still had my iPod in, listening to the same music I can listen to anytime and I turned it off. As corny as this all probably sounds, I wanted to listen to nature. Sitting under a starry sky, listening to the all the different sounds of summer; the frogs, crickets, and all the other bugs that seem to always be there every summer; and feeling the coolness of the air made for one of the most beautiful nights in a long, long time.
Thousands of stars to see. And at my zenith where the sky was at its darkest and stars most plentiful I could even make out the faint whiteness of the Milky Way. Or at least I think I did. While sitting there enjoying the cool evening I was lucky enough to see three shooting stars. I tried to think of the last time when I even saw one and I don't know. And as I sat there on the cool pavement, I wondered if any of those stars have since faded away or if any of the stars was a sun with it's own planets. Sorry, I didn't mean to get so deep with this but I couldn't help it. It just amazes me how far away it all is and how small our planet really is.
So obviously a starry night (no, not the van Gogh painting) is really beautiful to me. As much as I may not like where I live at times I love being able to actually see stars at my dad's and particularly at my mom's house. While I'm excited to get back to JMU, one of the things I'll miss about home is being able to go outside on a dark night and see thousands of stars millions of miles away. Sadly, Harrisonburg and JMU make it just too damn bright to see anything but the very brightest stars. I know many of the 16,000+ students and Harrisonburg residents would hate it but I'd love it if one night all the lights on campus and around town would shut off if only for a few minutes. More realistically I'd love to someday drive out somewhere remote, away from bright lights of cities, towns, schools, and whatnot, to really see a starry sky. I've thought about it too in the Harrisonburg area. Get far away enough from that town and things get very dark I'm sure.
And as if to complement the dark night and the bright stars, the air was so cool and comfortable that it brought out so many bugs and frogs and other creatures to add a natural soundtrack. As I sat I wondered why I still had my iPod in, listening to the same music I can listen to anytime and I turned it off. As corny as this all probably sounds, I wanted to listen to nature. Sitting under a starry sky, listening to the all the different sounds of summer; the frogs, crickets, and all the other bugs that seem to always be there every summer; and feeling the coolness of the air made for one of the most beautiful nights in a long, long time.