Last night I got away from the "urban" core of Window Rock and had my
first view of the night sky visible in the deep darkness of the Rez. I
saw the Milky Way for the first time in a long, long time. The Big
Dipper stood straight up and down above the northern horizon. The
crescent moon, two days shy of first quarter, was high in the western
sky. Jupiter was crossing the meridian just behind the Plieades. If I
hadn't been freezing my butt off I could had stared at this glorious
sight for hours.
Just standing there for those few minutes brought back so many memories
of watching that immense sky during the five years I lived here.
Walking most nights with my dog most nights, I watched the eternal
parade of planets across the sky and saw the stars wheeling about the
pole as the months progressed. I came away from that experience with an
acute sense of my cosmic insignificance. Surprisingly, that sense of
insignificance also reminded me that I was very unique, that somehow
random chance brought me into being in the midst of this vast universe.
I don't get the same sky in Olympia but I carry the understanding of my
place in the universe from my days in Window Rock. And when Olympia
skies are cloudy or diminished by urban light I will think back to the
cosmic glory of the Window Rock sky. I may be far away from it these
days but it is always a part of me.
Last night was a wonderful reminder of that.
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