Night Sky

Today is my birthday. 55 years old. If I could have any wish I wanted, I would wish and receive a week of clear night skies in an area with no light pollution.

Yes, it is that simple. I really don't want (or need) anything else for my birthday. But oh how I would love to see the night sky again.

I've written about this before (Stars is one place), as regular readers of my blog know. I love the night sky. I thrill to the night sky. I am energized by the night sky. I am filled with more praise to our God and Father while viewing the night sky than at any other time.

I miss the night sky very, very much. I miss it more than I miss sunshine in winter here in Ukraine (maybe because this year we've had so much sunshine - yea!)

Today on Astronomy.com there was a short article about light pollution and how people all over the world are helping to measure how much light pollution is in their area this week. This is the graphic they used from last years reports:I know that each time we go home to Colorado, less of the night sky can be seen from my parents due to the light pollution from the Denver metro area especially, but also from nearby Colorado Springs. The sky to the north is a perpetual orangish color at night now. Black spruce, Ponderosa pine and bare aspen trees are clearly silhouetted against that orange and it is hard to see the dimmer stars directly overhead.

So sad. Such a major loss to mankind and most people don't even know it. Maybe if people would spend more time looking up at the sky and around themselves on the earth there would be less crime. Maybe. sigh

So, this is kind of what the sky looks like here at night, almost this bad, but not quite:And this is what it looked like in my childhood in Colorado, and still does look like away from light pollution:

If you are interested in being a part of this years GLOBE at Night project, check out this page: GLOBE at Night.

When I think about the stars, and night time, and the aurora and natural beauty that is being lost due to man's rape of the earth - when I think of these things, oh how I long even more for heaven and the new earth.

This song has absolutely nothing to do with being in heaven (although it does mention "living forever with me"), but it's kind of how I'm feeling today:Wilderness
(C.W. McCall, Bill Fries, Chip Davis)
From the album Wilderness
Come along and sing
A song you knew before
Come along and sing
Once more
Come along and live
A life you knew before
Come along and live
Once more

Wake with me and feel the misty blue dawn
Come hear the wild bird sing her mornin' song
See the sun that only wilderness sees
Then walk with me and let your heart run free
Come on along and chase the wind once more
Come on along and try one more time
Come on along and find the trail once more
Come on along and live again

Come with me and see the ridge run wild
Come hear the canyon call her wanderin' child
Breathe the air that only wilderness breathes
Then walk with me and let your heart run free
[Musical interlude. Slow banjo pickin' and violins.]
Come on along and climb the mountain once more
Come on along and try one more time
Come on along and cross the river with me
Come on along and live again

Come with me and hear the night bird cry
And see the starlight fill the wonderous sky
Feel the joy that only wilderness feels
Come on along along and we'll be free
Fly with me and find the end of time
Run with me and feel the wilderness high
Come on along and live forever with me
Come on along along and we'll be free


C.W. McCall Wilderness lyrics