Stellar Reverie

As I was leaving the house the other morning, I saw the constellation Orion - remarkably bright - gracing the southern sky. Winter is icumen in, eh?

Seeing the constellations always puts me in a bit of a thoughtful or dreaming state; I think about seeing them in their current form - as groupings of stars that are not equidistant from Earth. I think about traveling closer to the Orion Nebula - to see it as a visitor rather than as an observer. And I think about distant planets circling those stars. I still get a little thrill thinking about the word "planet" - it evokes memories of wonder as I watched "Star Trek" as a child, imagining what it might be like to stand on the surface of a world with a different color sky.

Aurora Borealis is the true stellar reverie - the storms of the sun creating an ethereal presence here on Earth. Someday I'd like to see them from further north - like Greenland.

Next time there's a heavy meteor shower, go outside and watch the sky light up as we pass through the heavens. Took me a long time to understand that those rocks hurtling through the atmosphere are more stationary than our world. "Just passing through," said the Earth....