Sunday, June 24, 2012

"Sleeping Celestially..."


As much as I am prepared by carrying a tent, bivi sac, or tarp for out there, I rather very much appreciate simply sleeping under the stars. There seems to be another level of joy in falling asleep, then waking up, and having the first image before us be our stars above, maybe with the mountains against a night sky, or the glimmer and iridescent color of first light. When up on a mountain itself in a bivi, or out on the shoreline of a coastal island, with just a trap layed over us, it is wonderful to awake in the middle of the night, slowly open ones' eyes, and gaze longingly at the celestial elements above us...
Things of the sky, especially in the night, seem to have a divine nature to them, an angelic symmetry and beauty in their placement, movement, and elegance.
Stars themselves call for us, as their light and wanderings have a frequency to them that we have yet to fully understand. Their flickering images always seem to surely be gesturing for us to reach higher and farther...
I first was invited to experience this way of sleeping celestially long ago on Outward Bound, and am so very glad that this happened. Now I undertake to do so and appreciate this often as possible, and when I awake in those deep darker hours I gaze up, smile to myself, and remember as Deng Ming-Dao wrote: "In the night sky, the stars always make us wonder. As children and as adults, we never tire of looking at that sparkle. Story tellers of old attributed meaning to the constellations. Strategists foretold the future by their movements. Sailors on the sea navigated by them. For centuries, the stars have inspired wonder and direction...".
Just reflecting once more this adventure day upon our recent time of quietly sleeping celestially out on a wild place journey..... DSD 
My thanks Friends for sharing your images above with us.

1 comment:

Barry said...

There is a significantly humbling, even mysterious component to the realization that each of us is a small part of a much larger dimension. The advantage of being at high elevation in a remote are is the ability to see the stars which cease visual existence in urban areas.