There is endless starlight above the North Woods. It is silent, welcoming and brilliant. It exists overlighting the dark woods lying below, a rich blanket of furry evergreens. The fireworks of planets, some being born, others dying, request us to leave the distracting illumination of our cities and townships in order to witness it”s true brilliance.

Traveling slowly, lights peering wearily down a forestry road the stars guide the rubber as they roll tentatively over seldom used grounds. The trees, black in the shadows stand as sentinels side by side silent and pointing upward. Starlight explodes against their stark darkness. A lone star, falling quickly traces its arch beyond reach. Rubber and tread creeping slowly over small stones and following bumps and shallows. The soft sound like tearing newspaper opens the nights silence.

Human brains squirm in their shells, leaving civilization is uncomfortable, the darkness, the silence…it’s unknown and sudden. The vehicle aged but steady had left the narrow highway outside of town. The radio is asleep, hands sweat gripping the worn steering wheel, loose clothing and cell phones, now quiet. The windows roll down in the borrowed seventies wagon with the rumbling engine that mimics the purring of a comfortable cat. The body panels squeak on the old frame from its thousands of miles driven. The kids remember their father’s words, “Just be careful with the wagon, she’s an old girl. Give her love and she will do you well.” The night lights quiet above, ribbon the surface of the green Chevy with a turquoise glow. The old chrome sparkles like spontaneous sparks, then the shadows swallow all of the vehicle as the ancient headlights shed their beams of light barely revealing the road ahead. The sentinels reside silent as the intruders enter the narrow channel dividing the woods. The road welcomes the strangers as creatures, some asleep murmur in their dreams while others eye the alien invaders. Laughter and conversation hushes their entering the shadowland as fingers grasp the window sills. Young faces stare up into the night, minds opening hearts pounding. The kids jump and scream as a doe and her fawn bounce away in their haste to escape the headlights. Instantly they are gone as if never there.

Above, million of miles above the forests the stars shimmer, shine and glow each distinct and bearing the arch of time as they travel or reside. Space is silent, the largest ear accepting every wish and hope, birth and death, the movement of all things whispered or shouted into its vacuum. Omnipotent and welcoming all of the heavenly bodies reside here joyfully existing, an orchestra of brilliance. Space witnesses and nurtures them all unconditionally, always expanding and contracting in all of the luminescence.

Up the rising incline of the forestry road the wagon creeps to the hill’s crest. The sentinels step aside just over the hill as the road divides into a broadening meadow. It is bathed in shadows mostly but an icing of light dimly reveals its grasses. The Chevy rumbles to a stop. The rubber warm from its passage flexes and groans. The ticking and thumping, rumbling and spinning of the old V8 suddenly ceases and succumbs to the silence. The kids are quiet as the driver shifts the statue into park. Then suddenly, the four doors fly open with creaks as six sets of feet hit the ground and two more sets make it over the back seat, smaller yet more enthusiastic than the rest. Young arms and legs run up the road and down into the shimmering meadow light. Their voices, bird songs full of bubbling joy and enchantment echo around as the sentinels receive them. Behind them as their footfalls settle, the old wagon rolls backward a quarter of an inch settling into well worn gears. The kids’ cell phones each turn black one by one. “Leave your phones in the car.” Their parents had insisted. At least for the first ten minutes. They felt naked and alone without them, that is … until they gazed upwards.