Excerpt
7. Starlight
“Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight. I wish I may, I wish I might have the wish I wish tonight.”

Everyone remembers those words. Our parents said them to us and we repeated them to
our children. They are magic words, creating a world of fantasy. This simple verse opens the door to dreaming. Children tend to be dreamers. Seniors can be dreamers too, but they may not be aware of this. Many of us have spent a lifetime dreaming and wishing upon a star. Sometimes we got our wish and sometimes we did not. Stories have been written about wishing on a star and movies have been made and songs composed about it, but I ask you now, when was the last time you looked up at the stars and made a wish?
I’ll bet you don’t remember. Don’t feel bad. I also discovered I could not remember the last time I looked at the stars either, or even the night sky for that matter. That is–until last night.
I took Molly out for one last time and while we were out in the yard, the porch light burned out. We were surrounded by darkness. I looked around and saw a few lights through the window, but what caught my eye was the moon rising over the top of the mountain. It was only partially visible so there was little light from it. The moon was a golden globe slowly rising up from behind the trees on the mountain top. Only stars lit the night sky in this early evening, faint little twinkling lights that cast patterns in a comforting blanket across the night sky.
In the world of nature beauty does not exist for beauty’s sake. Natural beauty has a reason and a purpose to its existence. The reason and purpose for stars is known only to God, so there is no point in questioning their existence now. I could go on with a dissertation about suns and planets and morning and evening stars, but that is not the mood I want to create just now.
I found myself surrounded by night shadows and covered with the blanket of twinkling lights. On this night the shadows of darkness did not take on a frightening ambience, and Molly and I stood still and looked up at the heavens. Instead of darkness, the night covered us with a mantle of celestial bodies. The sky was filled with sparkling diamonds, far superior to those diamonds we take from mines in the earth. Sirius, the brightest star in the heavens, bathed the earth with tender light. It was as if the star was bursting forth with all its glory before the moonlight caused it to fade. It was surrounded by countless tiny pin points of light, each light caressing the dark sky.
I found myself spellbound and did not want to hurry inside. I sat on the steps with my good friend, and both of us contemplated the night. Molly rested at my feet, her head on my left foot. Earth and heaven melted into one warm comforter of beauty and tenderness. My mind filled with thoughts. I was ashamed of myself for ignoring the stars during the past season. I tried to justify this by thinking I was just too busy, but this was not true. I simply got so caught up in daily life that I forgot about the beauty of the night. Night was for sleeping. That’s all. I thought there was only goodness and beauty in what I could see, but beauty did not exist in the stillness and darkness of night. I was wrong.
Like so many of my senior friends I had became involved with the struggle of everyday living and the uncertainty of life circumstances. There was no room for anything else in my existence. It is difficult to maintain a balance between our physical self and the fragile beauty we find in the world around us. This double aspect of our humanity makes it possible for us to be either a cynical pessimist or a glassy eyed optimist depending on which view we choose to take.
Balance is an important aspect of living, but we are often not aware of this. We do not balance light and shadows well. We bask in the light of good fortune, and suffer in the shadows of misfortune. Most of us have a reasonable amount of good health through our youth and well into the middle years, and for some of us, good health follows us through our old age. Then in the shadow of illness some of us lose this good health, and we grumble and complain forgetting the days of radiant vitality and endless strength. Now, many of us seniors remember only our aches and pains. We allow shadows to creep across the remembrance of years of good days. We do not balance our thoughts. We have talked about balance before, but it is time to talk about it again
While I sat on the step with Molly, my back started to hurt and for a moment I began to feel sorry for myself. But when I looked up at the starlight I realized just how fortunate I was to be able to sit out here and enjoy the beauty of God’s night creation, even if I did hurt a little. I decided I wanted to balance my situation by thanking God for the beauty of the starlight and the fact that I can balance the light of the stars with the darkness of pain. There in the starlight I made a wish, a wish for stability and balance in my life.
God does not always answer our questions with the answer we want. Sometimes he just says “No.” God is not punishing us or disciplining us, but praying and asking for what we want or what we need, puts us in close proximity with our creator, and after a while the yes or no answer is not as important to us as is the direct communication with our spirituality.
That is what I discovered when I prayed under the stars. In just a few moments of positive thinking and awareness I was able to move from pain caused depression to thankfulness. I had balanced my spirit, and when the moon rose higher in the sky and faded the starlight, I went into the house in a positive frame of mind.
You can balance your life by just becoming more aware of all aspects of living. There are

three kinds of awareness we should consider.
Cognizant Awareness- This is our mental approach to awareness and it includes our thoughts, ideas, plans, and concepts.
Emotional Awareness- This is awareness of our feelings comprising all aspects of our emotions.
Sensory Awareness-This includes every kind of physical sensation we experience.

We are usually aware of physical sensations and even most of our thoughts and ideas, but emotional awareness is the most problematic for many of us. Intellectually we can be aware of something, but emotionally we also could have trouble dealing with it. Ask yourself if there are personal problems that you know how you should handle, but cannot follow through on what you know you need to do. How do you balance this situation? These situations are part of the light and shadows of every day living. How do we put everything in perspective?
Here are 12 steps that will help you balance your life. You have heard them all before
but here they are all in one place. Decide which ones have meaning for you and then deal with
them. Think about how you can grow and change your life. Think about how you can balance the
many forces and emotions that crowd your mind.
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1. Be aware of your emotions. Learn to keep them under control.
2. Learn to control you anger. Anger hurts you and those you love.
3. Simplify your life. SLOW DOWN.
4. Get rid of baggage and dead wood. They only hold you down.
5. Find something beautiful in nature each day. Meditate on this.
6. Learn to show gratitude. Be thankful for others and for God.
7. Find time to be alone each day.
8. Be aware of your choices. Think before you make them.
9. Do not pretend to be something you are not. You only fool yourself, not others.
10. Do not hang on to negativity and negative thoughts. Let them go.
11. Develop your sense of humor, Laugh more and cry less.
12. Celebrate life no matter how difficult it may seem. Be aware of the God that created you.
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Do you remember how dark the night shadows can be? If you look up toward the heavens and there are no clouds, you can always see the stars shining brightly overhead. Even if our fragile awareness tells us that we are experiencing life’s dark shadows, remember the stars. They are a positive testimony to the permanence of nature and the reality of creation. Tonight, go outside for a few minutes and look at the moonlight and starlight. They cover our world with a gentle blanket. They balance the light and the heat of the day.
Look for a few moments at your own life and check the balance. Only you can determine whether you are bathed in gentle starlight or whether you are standing in despairing darkness. You are free to choose the path you want your life to follow. And while you are out there, make a wish. Who knows? You might have the wish you wish tonight.
*Prayer:
Father God, Help me to be more aware of the beauty of the world around me, and to find security and comfort in the amazing world you have created for us. Let me wish upon a star tonight, and to be satisfied even it my wish is answered in a way I can not easily understand.