Ranting away...: Under the same skies

Ranting away...

Saturday, May 05, 2007

Under the same skies

I look up at the full moon nearing its zenith.

In the darkness around me, everything is silent and still. Even the moon shadows seem afraid to betray the slightest hint of movement, and the wind dares not stir even a single leaf. The night is so peaceful.

I remember the summer nights I used to spend frolicking under the moonlight as a child. It was often too hot to play outside during the day, so kids in our neighborhood were often allowed to go out to play at night as long as there was sufficient light, especially when the moon was full. Sometimes, there would be brownouts. The surge in the demand for electricity during the hot summer months inevitably lead to power outages. Caught unaware and having nothing better to do, the family and the next-door neighbors would go out and socialize. Us kids also had our share of socializing, too. Whether it was the aptly named buwan-buwan, habulan (tag and chase), or the ever-exciting taguan (hide and seek), we played to our hearts' content during those clear moonlit nights of summer.

The moon would often rise round and with a golden glow, looming over the rice fields, bamboo groves and coconut trees in the eastern horizon, diminishing in size and taking on a more silvery-bluish light as it made its way up the sky. It was under this magnificent backdrop - the still nightscape bathed in pale silvery moonshine and bottomless shadows - that I spent the summers of my childhood.

Of course, in the provinces back then, the concept of light pollution didn't even exist. There were no glaring city lights that obscured the heavens and the stars. The skies were clear, most especially so during the frequent blackouts in summer and in the 1990's.

For a moment, we caught a timeless glimpse of nature at night... of what nights were like before man discovered fire, and electricity, and eventually flooded his homes and settlements with artificial lights. We saw the heavens as they truly are - in all their undiminished luster - whether it be in the glorious moonlight that carpeted the rice fields with a silvery sheen or shimmered above the waters, the sparkle of the countless stars, or the interplay of light and shadow over the natural landscape.

It is a wondrous sight. An it's during times like these that I remember how I so easily took those times for granted, like my own innocence and carefree childhood.

The heavens are vast, and they are beautiful. Though I can no longer bring back those summer nights of not-so-long-ago, I will look up and take comfort in the fact that it's still the same sky that bore witness to my childhood, the same sky under which the child that I was, used to play and delight in. It does not change.

And I take greater comfort in the equally wonderful truth that the One who created all these - who set the heavens in place - does not change, too. And so does His love for me...

Even in my sin and shame. I'm sorry. Forgive me for all those times...
Though I put on a face of composure, I am broken deep inside. And I can't pick up the bits and pieces. I can't mend the shattered image of You in me.
Heal me and I shall be healed. And I will be whole again.

"The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of His hands." (Psalm 19:1)

12 midnight
May 4, 2007

Labels: inside the self, the walk

posted by remrick @ 6:01 PM

2 Comments:

At 6:19 PM, Jac Libatique said…

Amazing, I think that this post accurately painted how much one of my summers use to look like.
At 6:39 PM, remrick said…

waaah! paano po niyo nalaman ang blog ko, ate?