Stars-Jeddah Writing Club

I still remember that mid-summer night, we were camping in the desert. Everyone had fallen asleep and all that remained of the fire was the glowing embers fanned by the surprising chilly breeze that playfully pushed tendrils of my hair across my face. I snuggled under the crudely woven blanket as scratched my skin. The faint smell of burnt wood mingled with the dew scented air.

I lay gazing at the sky, hypnotised by the sheer brilliance of the stars, scattered like diamonds against the luxuriously dark velvet of the sky. I felt cheated that I had never seen the beauty of the heavens, blinded by the city lights and smog, only seeing the lone star (or was it a satellite) once in a blue moon.

I felt like the only person alive on earth, in the middle of the silent desert witnessing the natural spectacle of beauty which was there free for all to enjoy, but it seemed to be wasted on humanity too occupied with diamonds on the ground to bother looking up.

I caught a movement from the corner of my eye, but it was gone before I could see what it was.

And then another movement, just on the periphery of my vision.

I shifted my gaze, and then one, two , three shooting stars, burnt across the skies. I held my breath, at nature’s firework display, and then again it repeated again and again from different parts of the sky. I felt like a guest an exclusive event, as if this display was solely for my pleasure as rest of the world slept on. 

Then a particularly bright star burnt its way across the sky determined and true to its path. A thought struck me, in the chaotic disorder of stars there is an order that we cannot see, but just because we cannot see something it does n’t mean it is n’t there. 

Or that it is n’t wonderfully beautiful.  Just as suddenly as the shower of shooting stars and meteorites had started it came to an end.

A calm serenity in the belief that my fate is in the hand of One who controls all with such beauty overtook me. Sleep demanded an end to the visual feast and slipped its dark cover over my eyes however, the light still burned within my heart.