From Darkness, Light

Uganda is beautiful. It is wild and rolling and green and red and yellow. The flowers are beautiful, the trees are beautiful, the children are beautiful, the nights are beautiful. There are no street lights for miles, so they are completely dark. Not just that kind of darkness that makes it difficult to see where you’re walking without a flashlight, but the kind of darkness where you can’t see anything: no city lights in the distance, no television flickering in a neighbor’s window, headlights are rare. The area by my room is well lit, but it’s only a few steps away to get to the dark, dark night. And once you’re there, and you look up, you might be confused and think you are in space, because there are so many big, bright stars, and the moon is so large and luminous that you decide you must be dreaming.

North Carolina has some of the worst light pollution in the US. The stars you can see at night are dim, and seem far away. There’s light everywhere, so you don’t see the brightness of the stars, and the moon seems dull. In my mind, it stands in stark contrast to the dark nights and bright stars of Uganda.

When I was young, I was afraid of the dark. I would stay awake for hours, looking around my room, making sure that nothing was coming out of my closet. If I had to get up, I jumped as far away from my bed as I could: I knew something was hiding under it. I was so busy being scared, that I rarely noticed the moonlight or got a good night sleep. To this day, if I’m alone in a large house or walking by myself at night, I get a little nervous. After all, at night is when bad things happen, when the bugs and monsters and bad people come out to watch me silently, and maybe, to spring. But now, I have my TV and ipod to distract me, and my bright lights and loud security system to protect me.

The ironic thing is, the street lights I have for security, and the television I have to distract me from my fear of the dark, have taken the beauty of the night from me. Because of the light I have, I am unable to appreciate the stars. Sometimes when something uncomfortable happens to me, I’m so busy trying to get rid of it, that I forget to enjoy the good that it brings. Sometimes in my desire for everything to be perfect, I forget to enjoy the natural beauty around me. Sometimes, out of fear of change, I miss opportunities. Sometimes, I’m so worried about the darkness, I forget to see the light that inevitably accompanies it.

My fellow synchrobloggers:

Dark City, by Lori
How Are You? I Am Fine. by David
Into the Darkness, by Alaina
The Senior Scramble, by Katie
Megan
In the Dark, by Jennifer