Not much going on these days. I think I needed a break from writing after finishing my last paper – just to be with the kids and go to sleep before 1am (wow. that’s all i can say about sleeping 7 hours/night. wow.).
I read a beautiful post the other day from Wylie Kat (note: still need to learn to do the links when I get bored of sleeping 7 hours/night) about camping and seeing the night sky. It brought me back to those weekends when we used to stay in our rustic little home in Mineral de Pozos, Guanajuato. Pozos used to be a wealthy mining town decades ago until the flooding of the mines and the fighting of the revolution drove out most of its inhabitants. Nowadays, this small desert town is beginning to draw an artist community as San Miguel de Allende becomes more and more commercialized. It was still pretty wild when we were there a few years back. Sometimes we’d wake up and open the front door (we always opened the front door during the day because, well, our yard was the desert!!) to be greeted by a stray horse or goat munching away at a tiny spot of dry grass in our “yard”. During the rainy season there, the endless desert fields of dry corn patches, ruinas and cacti transform from a dusty pale yellow to a vibrant green, speckled with wildflowers and fragrant herbs. Talk about seasons and drastic changes, from daily dust storms to lush and pungent greenery…. everything begins to smell so good, one almost expects to see thin scent clouds wafting about the desert. But regardless of season, the night sky there is always breathtaking. There is something about seeing all those constellations and shooting stars, it’s like Wylie Kat says – you almost want to whisper. I wonder why that is – why does such beauty make us whisper… in respect, in awe, in wonder? Maybe it’s a reminder that there is so much more to this life than we usually see or fathom. I feel small and I’m amazed. The universe (or the little that I’ve seen from a little cabin in Pozos) is gorgeous. And, somehow, remembering that sky makes me think of a baby’s fingerprint. Isn’t that a weird connection to make? Or is it? A stirring of the spirit perhaps.
This isn’t my video but I found it on Youtube and enjoyed seeing those ruinas again:
2 responses so far ↓
wyliekat // August 18, 2008 at 6:16 am
I hope the urge to whisper is born out of respect for what we’re seeing, rather than the emphasis on how small we really are. Either way, the feeling I was having was in no way a lessening. Just peace and awe.
watermelonmama // August 18, 2008 at 11:40 am
I think when I was younger, I used to feel small and that made me feel powerless – just less. But somehow as I get older, I sometimes feel it’s more like those commercials where you see one photo and then another and then another and then everything zooms out and you see that all the photos become a beautiful mosaic or tapestry… Of course that’s not how I always see life, but I am trying. I mean, I like the thought of there being so much more out there than I can imagine, kind of like there are so many more words than those I can personally think of… so in that way, feeling small makes me feel hopeful. Weird, I know.