Stars

When living in such a busy and fast paced city, it is often times very difficult to find a place of stillness and peace. We marvel at the flashes of lights and colors. We find solitude in the sound of music and drums. We look up to the sky expecting stars but only find airplanes and helicopters. We are surrounded by so much noise and chaos that  it is easy to forget what it feels like to be still... to really be still.

A couple of weeks ago, I was at a retreat, where the sounds of machines and engines were replaced with the sounds of the wind and wildlife. The bright city lights and tall buildings were replaced with wooden cabinets and towering trees. The crowds of people rushing to get to places where replaced with people strolling ever so slowly in awe as they marveled at how...how majestic the nature was. It is no surprise that even the most hyper and easily distracted people... the youth, would stop and oh so silently just observe how beautiful of a world they live in. No adult had to remind them of the serenity of nature. No adult had to tell them, "this is what stillness and peace feels like." 

Sunday night, a group of middle and high schoolers took a hike up to one of the higher places in the retreat site. There, for a good 15 minutes, we lied on our backs and looked up at the stars. For 15 mins, we were all quiet. We were looking at stars- real stars- not crazy man made airplanes that light up our city skies- real stars. It was a scene not even a camera can capture. It was a scene that begs to be seen with our own eyes, unfiltered. It was a scene that brought some to tears, some to smiles, and still some to a deep yearning for more. It was a scene that made so much sense but almost no sense at all. The beauty and the majesty of how perfect and unadulterated the moment was rendered even the most talkative into speechlessness. 

I cannot tell you what it is that I saw. I can only describe to the best of my poor ability with words how crazy and overwhelming it was. It might sound cheesy, "oh the stars were so pretty!!!" It is just one of those things that you have to experience for yourself. 

A couple of days after returning back to the city and all of it's craziness, I came across this quote, 

"We look up at the same stars, and see such different things."- George R.R. Martin

No matter what it is that we see when we look up to the stars, it all points to something greater. 

-Charlie

**Quote credit to Haley