I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness because it shows me the stars.
– Og Mandino

What is it about stars in the night sky that has captivated people the whole world around?

In Morocco, when we first reached the Atlas Mountains after hours of driving, the first thing that struck me was just how quiet everything was. The night sky was breathtaking, the dark was all-encompassing, and it was absolutely beautiful.

This was a night sky I had never seen before. In high school during the stressful college preparation days, I would lay across the bleachers of our football field after my nightly run and gaze at the sky. In college, right when TCSD had me in its clutches, I would venture out to Schenley Park at night and take in the Pittsburgh skyline to clear my head. But this Moroccan night was the first time I had I seen the stars so clearly, so many of them speckling the sky, showing me why they called it the Milky Way. Was this how Copernicus and Galileo felt when they gazed at the heavens?

To have that sort of peace accessible literally right in your backyard — that’s something that I dream of often these days. I think about it when I need a reminder that there is so much more out there, that this life and this universe are so much bigger than just me.