Writing

I Chose To Walk Barefoot Through The Settled Stardust

In my younger years, I spent many summer evenings lying down in the grass watching the stars above. I knew many of their stories, but even then I dreamed of finding more. Now I find myself with my bare feet planted firmly on top of the planet’s most glittering expanse — the skin of the Earth itself, a stardust serenade playing softly in my ears and the grass tickling my toes, just like it did all those years ago.

In my life, I chose to walk through the settled stardust, though in my mind, I live in a world of fantasies, surrounded by the possibilities and the beauty of what could be. Sometimes it’s overwhelming, but other times it’s freeing, like living in a movie or an alternate reality. So, when I’m told it’s finally my turn to walk barefoot through all the settled stardust, my answer was always an obvious yes. It may sound too good to be true at first, but there is something special about walking through the sky without shoes on your feet. And there is no one around to tell you that you’re wrong for doing it either.

When I was a child, the sky was always a dark navy and the wind was warm and gentle. I used to gaze up at the night sky just after the sun had set, and the stars were just coming out. One by one, they appeared until their light shimmered across my skin, so bright and beautiful that I couldn’t help but reach out to touch them. I dreamed many dreams of how my life and love would be, but, as my fingers glided through the sky, they disappeared.

Now as an adult, I gaze up into the cosmos on clear nights with no clouds in sight, and gaze up at millions of stars, all shining brighter than usual. The stars look close enough to touch this time, but as soon as my fingers brushed against them, they disappear again like little shooting stars—a seemingly never ending dance of beauty and grace, in which what we desire most is that which we cannot fully grasp.

It’s been two years now since the day I walked barefoot through all the settled stardust. In that time, my life has changed more than it ever did before. It’s been one adventure after another, with new people and new places thrown into the mix as if it were some sort of cosmic recipe. A recipe that I never could have predicted would yield such amazing results. Sometimes when we’re not looking, our lives become someone else’s story and at some point we are forced to realize that things can’t stay the same forever.

Colophon
The image used in this piece is titled Will You Still Remember Me, and was taken in 2015.

Asides
Star Gazing | Only The Moon Understands The Beauty Of Love | I’ve Lived My Life As A Prelude To A Mystery | The Lost Girl Was Meant To Be Found | Summer Nights And Electric Twilight | The Sound of Raindrops: My Love Affair with the Rain | Caught Daylight | In Another Set Of Chances I’d Take The One’s I’ve Missed | Summer Comes For Everyone | The Criticism | Why I Did What I Did

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