Stars – Ameravith

Orion

photo by sam-goodgame-437215-unsplash

There! Three distinct stars shining in their timeless row. The identical ones I had been seeing since I was a child. Having forgotten the names of most constellations as well as their individual stars, I can still pick out Orion’s Belt without hesitation wherever I am.

Rula was the one who had taught me about constellations. Orion was her absolute favorite: The Hunter with his Bow and Dogs. Late at night, I used to sit bundled up in the highlands beside her, peering into the universe through telescopes. What I loved most were the fantastic names every object had.

Quasars!

Dwarf Stars!

Nebulae!

Rula could enunciate each name accurately, explaining the meanings and history of a particular star, constellation or other heavenly body. I admired the beauty of the knowledge she possessed. She once said the immenseness of the cosmos was God’s way of reminding us of our true place in creation. She believed that the night sky was to give us perspective whenever our earthly cares overwhelmed us. She was right. Some of us take this merry-go-round called life too seriously. Others treat it much too lightly. All of us are guilty at one time or another of not maintaining a proper perspective and have to live with the consequences of that failure.

Bellatrix.

Betelgeuse.

Rigel.

Stars found only in Orion.

I remember Rula each time I see Orion in the night sky and can’t help thinking of what might have been.

photo from unsplash.com by Sam Goodgame

Luis Saldana Runs Out Of Sleep

When a problem turns out not to be one

Luis Saldana woke up 17 minutes prior to his alarm going off. He was done sleeping and felt unusually at peace. On subsequent nights, he woke up earlier. This became a routine.

He grew to adore the vast emptiness of the morning hours. Luis began doing things he’d been putting off.

He wrote a letter to his deceased father.

He created a garden in his kitchen.

He read books and authors he had always wanted to read.

He took regular walks and his blood pressure plummeted to normalcy.

As he began waking just over 4 hours earlier than he used to, he started writing stories, capturing ideas from the ether and releasing them onto his pages. He entered competitions and at age 60, Luis Saldana appeared on literary shortlists.

‘Maybe it’s a chemical imbalance in the head?’ Mrs. Saldana guessed.

‘No, it’s a gift from God’, replied Luis. ‘Everybody receives at least one gift from God.’

He purchased a telescope and stargazed on cold nights. He relearnt the names of the stars, constellations and galaxies he had known in his youth. He considered moving somewhere with less light pollution.

Unlimited by the physical libraries of his youth, his mind went further and in directions choosen by him. He experienced the pleasures that came from pursuing the desires of his youth.

When time is abundant, we turn to the skies. Eventually we turn inside and we speak with God. And so Luis arrived at God, who seemed different during the wee hours, more approachable and generous with answers. Life was never the same again.

While he did not move house, Luis Saldana was content with his life’s unexpected detour and the pleasures it brought, right until the day he did not get up anymore.

Photo by Ihor Malytskyi on unsplash.com

Fall of the Sky Kingdom

Then the dark days of the hailstorm came. War raged like the sea tides, surging and receding. It went on, solar year after solar year until a new King choose to act differently.

Prologue

The sky is a different place when you fly through it. Many times, I have sat on a plane and looked out the window and, it seems to be a different world out there than what we see from the limitations of our existence down here on earth. When you fly, the clouds are ahead of you, around you and most interestingly, beneath you. Majestic, mile-high cirrus and cumulus towers loom up, rose-tinted when the sun is low on the horizon. They look exactly like mountains, which in a way, they are.

If you are airborne during the earth’s late evening, a darker hue seeps into the crisp and clear blue dome of sky. The first star comes out – which one is it? And before you know it, a profusion of stars present themselves, forming constellations older than man and his limited knowledge.

Who is to say mountains can only be of the earth? Who is to say there aren’t other worlds or realms up there? I will tell you of the story I heard as a child.

Some among us have long known of the fabled existence of cities among the clouds. These were the ancient sky kingdoms where generations thrived and vanished, disappearing completely from humanity’s collective knowledge, save for brief glimpses that remain in the near-forgotten literature of various civilisations. They were not Gods strictly speaking, but a pure race somewhere between humankind and divine beings in the order of creation, blessed with the ability to travel through the skies in their magnificent chariots. They lived, loved and died as did lesser mortals on earth. Only the lifetimes were longer, the carefree days more blissful while darkness, when it arrived, was entirely more crushing.

There came a time when the First Kingdom, blessed with lifetimes of bountiful harvests and benevolent leadership, had passed the zenith of its rule and was threatened with war unless it subjugated itself to the rule of the war-mongering Third Kingdom. Emissaries journeyed between both nations, intent was counter clarified, until it became abundantly clear that the First Kingdom was left with two clear choices – surrender or face annihilation. Continue reading “Fall of the Sky Kingdom”