I was sitting next to one of our little scholars at our Carnegie Science Field trip today, and I found myself smiling for an entire 45 minutes sitting due to our encounter. I've blogged about this before-so forgive me for being redundant-but kids naturally feelt awe and wonderment in ways that adults cannot. You know, and I think it's just that there is magic we have as children that allows us to feel magical moments more intently, to find ordinary moments more extraorindary and to seek magic more frequently. During our planetarium show towards the end of our field trip, I was sitting next to a first grade friend who quite enjoys talking through every conversation, adding little side effects, tiny side conversations and more. Her reactions to "traveling to Mars" and watching the screen as we felt like we were landing on the moon was one of the most magnificent moments to witness because after every encounter she would whisper, "Wow" with her little raspy voice and then she would lean in to tell me something else she had seen. She whispered in awe through an entire 45 minute presentation and just when I thought she would run out of breath, she came up with something new to mention-I suppose when you are encountering true magic, there simply aren't enough words to say what you need to say.

The starry night brought me back to a place my husband and myself visited last summer as we traveled at 9:30 at night one evening through abandoned roads, no sign of civilization for about 30 minutes until we landed inside what looked like an abandoned parking lot. There was not a single light around. For those of you who have been star gazing before, what you do not want is a cloudy night or an area where there is going to be "light pollution." We waited for a while for the sky to darken and the clouds to clear and what I saw was unbelievably magnificent. And just like my little first grade scholars, I could not stop saying "wow" at the end of every sentence. When you see the sky so clear, not a single honking horn or car or light in the distance, you realize that humanity is so much more special-so much more beautiful-so much bigger than you realize when you are going through the day to day. When you see that full Milky Way galaxy unfold across the sky, you are left to understand that those stars each have a purpose and billions of wishes attached to them, and you are but one star in that giant galaxy-not so important-but very important when you think about the whole picture. For every star shining bright in the world creates an even more powerful galaxy-but we see through the darkness only when we choose to turn on the light.