The real fault in our stars

Road trips always intrigued me. The dusty long roads, picturesque surroundings, mountains engulfed by the sunsets, random yet essential coffee breaks, the cramps due to prolonged sitting, excitement to get to a destination, crossing and leaving cities behind are like pure dopamine shots for my mind.

On one such road quest from Phoenix to Los Angeles, I witnessed one of the most beautiful sunsets, amidst a million hues of turquoise to indigos to magentas(the picture above is an actual photograph). Since it was almost a 7 hour drive,  in a couple of hours the night was upon us. 

And I fell from the overwhelming brightness into the mystical darkness of the most extravagantly starry sky! And I couldn’t resist penning down some overwhelming thoughts. 

The sheer beauty of the nocturnal sky, often underestimated due to its silence. Just like someone wrapped the earth with a dust cloth of heaven. Luminous sparkling celestial beauties recklessly staining the dark sky. 

A couple of them blazing extraordinarily, while few subtly making their presence felt every now and then. And the deeper you gaze at some, the more identifiable they become.

And even the feebly lit ones aren’t worthless because until they didn’t light up, I couldn’t complete a few patterns. Maybe the strong ones that shine brightly in the gloominess of the night don’t really show up during the day. 

Each cosmic beauty exhibiting brilliance to the best of its ability. Some so unforgettable, you carry their sparkle back into bed, some you tuck under the blanket with your secrets. 

And some, you need to gaze at for longer to realise they exist, to see even they twinkle , often farther away, because closeness  overwhelms them. But each one impactful in their own way to illuminate the gigantic universe. 
 

A few clusters stick together while rest exist at a distance. No star intertwines with another, each magnificent with their own peculiarities, as if a universe exists within them regardless of who shines brighter. 

No two sparkles are identical, yet they all have similar hues of blues, pinks and purples..
And each star shines in the most spectacular way they can, until they find a reason to explode. Break themselves into the abyss of the night or break into many stars like themselves. 

Stars make self destruction look like a beautiful poem or a symbol of hope that we believe has the power to make a wish come true.

We wish upon shooting stars when it’s actually an exploding star, proving the ironical nature of our being.

Stardust is considered beautiful and poetic, and yet we look at breaking humans with surprise. Aren’t we also galaxies wrapped in flesh and blood? 

How about stargazing into human galaxies? Will it unravel the mystery of the light that hides beneath layers of the dark norms of society and insecurities?

Witnessing nights like these liberates my imagination into a million sparkles. 

Love, hope, happiness, fear, failure, empathy are Souldust maybe. When my ecstatic self brims with emotions and can’t hold back what I feel, or when I witness my sky in another soul, like the stars, I break into a million pieces of what cannot be expressed.

And i think it’s beautiful, how the stars and I hold a lot in common, apart from the way we disappear without a noise, only to tip-toe back into the night.