Beneath a Moonless Sky base on a personal experience with the stars themselves

“Twinkle, twinkle little star! How I wonder what you are. Up above the world so high.

Like a diamond in the sky. Twinkle, twinkle little star! How I wonder what you are.”

Have you ever been beneath a moonless sky? Have you ever seen a clear, night sky unperturbed by the lights of the city? Have you ever heard a night that’s fallen on silent ears?

Such kind of night is rare—I personally love saying it happens once in a blue moon.

You might have never experienced it, but I have. And it’s an experience worth a lifetime of waiting. It’s a sight to behold and it only happens when you’re beneath a moonless sky.

It first happened to me during a citywide blackout and, unable to bear the suffocating atmosphere, I stepped out of the comforts of my house and heard nothing but silence. The ground was cold beneath my feet and the air was still. The night waited with bated breath as I looked around and saw nothing but darkness; buildings were shrouded in shadow, trees blended together and not a soul was in sight. Something called out to me from the great beyond, urging me to look up. I heeded its call and was stunned by the sight before me.

Above were celestial objects, too far to touch, but too near to be unseen. They were stars. Stars that were thousands of light years away, bubbling with hot gases and chemical reactions but somehow, of all the people in the world, I was the one who was able to gaze on their beauty and at that exact moment, I was speechless as I drank in the wonderful view.

The night sky was limitless—infinite. I didn’t know where the stars ended and where they began. They were just there. Trance-like, I slowly started seeing familiar constellations. Constellations like Orion, Cancer, the Little Dipper, the Big Dipper, Capricorn and several others, twinkled above me—the stars were more than I could ever count in a lifetime and I dearly wished I could. My hand reached out in a feeble attempt to hold one in my palm and see its beauty up close, but was only able to hold nothing but the cold night air. I wanted to put the night sky in a jar and gaze upon its beauty whenever I wanted to but that’s not how things worked.

I knew that I couldn’t take the beauty out of something beautiful and keep it to myself because if I did, that object wouldn’t be beautiful anymore and I wouldn’t have any beauty left to get in the first place. If I take away what makes something special, will its “specialness” remain special when it’s not with the thing that makes it special? If I could have taken away the brightness of a star, would its brightness have remained “bright” when it was not with the star anymore?

Minutes later, my eyes were still full of stars. My pupils were still dilated and my mouth still hung open with awe. There in front of me were billions of little pinpricks—like holes that peeked out to a new universe—scattered across the black curtain enveloping our side of the Earth. I was able to see clusters of stars—galaxies—that would forever lay untouched by man’s harsh hand. It was unfathomable how I could see celestial bodies that would never be within my grasp. Never in my lifetime would I be able to hold them in my hands.

Never in my lifetime would I ever be able to see them up close. And never in my lifetime could I ever grasp their untold stories. No matter how many times I’d sing of my love for the stars, it would be foolish to expect the stars to love me back. I recalled the rhyme I used to sing when I was young: “Star light star bright. First star I see tonight. I wish I may, I wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight.” I remembered that many poems in this land sing praises to the stars, which symbolize hope.

Numerous tales of love and despair are carefully woven to have the characters wish on a star and subsequently succeed in their quest. In reality, it is quite ironic that humans would wish on something that’s not even there anymore. No matter how many times we wish upon a star, it holds no power to grant our wishes. My hands were powerless to grasp them and keep them close to my heart.

And there in that moment, beneath a moonless sky, I realized with absolute certainty, that no matter how long I stared at those heavenly bodies and yearned to be close to them, I’d never be able to comprehend the powers they held, if they even held any. These stars were created and destroyed long before I was even born into this world. So why did they taunt me so?

Like a sensible child seeing a piece of candy just beyond her reach, I sighed in frustration and plopped onto a nearby chair. Arms crossed with indignation, I glared at the night sky for showing me something so beautiful, and leaving me breathless with delight, but keeping it far from my grasp. It was such a cruel twist of fate.

I suppose it may be for the best. Who knows what will happen if man ever gets their hold on these untouchable objects? There may be damage beyond repair and power that should never be held. There is a reason why stars are called “celestial objects.”

Their powers and secrets are not meant for terrestrial beings. No one would ever be able to understand them and perhaps that’s a good thing.

No matter how hard I tried holding a grudge against those stars, it definitely didn’t last long. They seemed to radiate an apology as they twinkled innocently in the soft breeze that followed. I closed my eyes and relished in the perfection I had taken part in. I opened them, expecting everything to have gone back to normal and that no ethereal beings gazed upon me from above but the night sky still remained splattered with white and red pinpricks of light.

My smile matched the brightness of the stars but unfortunately it didn’t last for long.

Because machines suddenly roared to life and artificial lights flickered back on. The silence was broken and the blissful moment of ecstasy was gone. Long gone.

Just like the stars themselves.