A childhood flashback...

I had a weird flashback yesterday...

I remembered when we moved out into the country and how dark it was at night.  It's funny to say, but nighttime in the city is so bright with streetlights and headlights that you can't actually see the stars...it's not really dark enough to appreciate the night for what it is.

I remember the first time I felt led to go outside and just look up into the night sky under the canopy of stars that hovered all around me.  The moon was so bright it cast shadows.  I could see the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper, but my favorite star formation was Orion, the great warrior of the universe.  Ever since my dad showed me this great constellation, I always got out of the car looking for it.  

Anyway, back to being led to go outside late in the evening all by myself.  I remember walking across the lawn and standing in the middle of Tug Hill Road.  At 11:30pm there was a car an hour that would use the road, so it was pretty much vacant...I had the road to myself.

I would lay flat on my back in the middle of the cool road and gaze toward the heavens in childlike awe.  In the country, there are more stars than you can imagine, like little diamonds peppering the night sky.  Shooting stars would flash back and forth as if playing with each other, the universe was alive!  I laid still just taking it all in even though it was vaster and grander than anything my mind could really lay hold of.

I remember not telling anyone about it until my college years because I didn't know any other guy my age that was drawn to the beauty of nature.  It seemed like most conversations were about sports or jokes or girls or trips or hunting or work or dirt bikes...I don't remember anyone talking about the midnight sky or the majesty of a sunrise.  I don't remember anyone glorying in the wonder of resplendent fall or the fresh aroma of the thawing earth in springtime.  So I kept this to myself, like Jesus' mother, I pondered of these things in my heart.

I can't tell you how many nights I walked our property and just laid in the open field or the middle of the road starring at the vast expanse of the infinite universe.  I felt like it put me in my place.  It centered me and calmed me.  It filled and stirred me.  It mesmerized me.

So that was my flashback.  Before I even knew that I was an artist, creation was whispering to my heart and flirting with me.  It wasn't until college that I figured out what was going on all those years.