Stargazing: a gift I didn’t know we needed

So part of our curriculum with The Children’s Tradition includes a bit about stargazing. It’s truly just as simple as that but Amanda gives us some context and encouragement on just… simply doing.

“The unfortunate position of modern man is that he rarely looks up. It was Socrates who compared men like us to cattle who graze through life with heads down to the earth. How many people today never behold the wonders of the Heavens that would so quickly propel their thoughts up to the Prime Mover of it all?” Amanda quotes on page 122 in the Children’s Tradition. And how right is she? The fact that we are so engrossed with what we feel like we need to be doing, the hustle of a to-do list that’s never ending, what’s the purpose of pausing and simply… looking up?

When I challenge myself to look up, my problems seem so small because I seem so small. When I look up and take a minute the anxieties of the day seem to melt behind me as we can embrace like a hug the oncoming of night as it whispers to us, “your day is done. Rest. Be glad in all you put forth and exhale.”

This practice as a family has been an easier one to implement than I expected as we do go camping quite often, so adding a Star Story or looking for some of our favorite constellations is just part of our routne now, and was as simple as just bringing along a book beside the campfire.

If you aren’t a camper (as I wasn’t most of my life) bringing out a picnic blanket and a star book is the perfect thing to fight off the early night blues since the time change, it’s getting darker earlier and is easy to stargaze before bath and bedtime. Bundle up and just enjoy the backyard sky before your normal bedtime routines. We’ve got little ones, but I can see in our future having a starry night picnic enjoying stories and stars in our future!

So, here’s encouragement for just doing it. Your heart will find some peace from the hustle and bustle, and invite a bit of wonder to you and your family.