Our family has been going to Lake Powell in the summers\nevery year from the time my children were little. It\u2019s literally one of our very\nfavorite places on earth. The water is\namazing, the red rock cliffs are incredible, and there is nothing in the world\nquite as beautiful as a Lake Powell sunset. And then there is the stars\u2026so so\nso many stars in the night sky\u2026which is why laying down on the top helipad deck\nof our houseboat in the dark of night looking up at the millions of stars shining\nso bright in the sky is one of my favorite things to do. It\u2019s truly an indescribable\nexperience that once you\u2019ve had you can close your eyes anytime and bring it to\nmind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What I find interesting is that those millions of stars are shining just as brightly up in the night sky back home, but because of all the lights of the city we aren\u2019t really able to see them up there shining away. And as a result we often forget they are even there because their light isn\u2019t as noticeable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Martin Luther King Jr said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOnly in the darkness can you see\nthe stars.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ve been thinking about that quote a lot today.\u00a0 It reminds me that the struggles we\u2019ve all been going through with the pandemic, natural disasters, killer bees, riots and so forth, that are causing things to seem dark, are also the very things causing us to notice the light from the stars again. Because of the darkness we are no longer taking things for granted as we had been when everything was light\u2026things like good health, our families, the shelter of home, being able to gather as friends, safe streets, and so on…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m grateful that I\u2019ve been seeing the stars in the sky again so clearly. And I\u2019m grateful to be recognizing that if it wasn\u2019t for the darkness we\u2019ve been going through I may have kept taking many of those stars for granted.\u00a0All I can say is “never again”. Even if things in the world get brighter and the light of the stars becomes harder to see I now know the importance of closing my eyes and picturing them shining brightly against a dark sky so that I never allow myself to take them for granted again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n