From the wonderful Natalie Goldberg book, “Old Friend from Far Away”.

The Milky Way (Photo credit: satosphere)

I used to sleep outside in the summer all the time when I was a child. The thought of it now brings back wonderful memories. Memories of hot summer nights in July and August. Usually a friend would be sleeping over. Sometimes it would just be me and my younger brother. We would dig our sleeping bags from out of the closet and sleep under the stars, right on the grass in the back yard. I am recalling popcorn, too. Did we eat popcorn on these nights? What I really remember was laying on the ground and staring up at the sky in amazement. There were millions and millions of stars. We would find the constellations and satellites.  We would always remind each other that the stars we were looking at were older than we could even fathom. That it took millions of years for the light of the star to get to the point where we could see it. I would stare up into the sky until I feel asleep and wake up the next morning in the wet, dewy grass.

I loved these nights. At the time I couldn’t express how they  made me feel, but I know now that they made me feel like I was a part of this vast universe.  And they made me realize how vast the universe truly is. There was so much possibility hidden in those stars.