I was in Argentina, on my way to the Gualeguaychú Carnival with my dear friend, Ketevan. We managed to find the right bus and now heading to Gualeguaychú from Buenos Aires. It was around 11PM, as we were passing the country-side, I looked up from the window. The stars were beautiful, like I have never seen. Immediately I pulled out my iPhone to try to capture the beauty in a photo… this is how it turned out:

I took another one, same results.

The sky, clear of light pollution, twinkled. The shiniest stars were the ones that make up the constellation of Orion, the seven main stars were very bright. As I stared, a shooting star flew by.

The reason we pull-out our cameras to capture such moments? I would say, because these moments move us, capturing the visual may help us capture the emotions felt at the time and share with others too. What if the picture doesn’t turn-out, or you forgot your camera at home? How about observing each detail to be able to take a mental picture! So, I just stared… well, into space…

It looked like sparkles on a black blanket or fireflies stuck in the sky. There were millions of them. Each dot illuminated a radius of about an inch surrounding it. The visual of the contrast of  luminance to dark was what made it so capturing. The inconsistency of the amount of light and twinkle each star gave-off, gave the sky character and mystery, telling us that the limit is unknown and there is more than we can see with our eyes. Every time a car drove by, the lights from the headlights would hide the some stars, mostly the smaller ones, the ones farther away. Although they would be hiding, I knew they were there.

OK, so what’s my point? This is not just meant to be an attempt at poetry 🙂

While I’m staring into space and journaling, I am now realizing, we were not sure if we were even on the right bus or which stop to get off at. And, we could not communicate with anyone on the bus because of the language barrier. At this point, it was almost 1:00 A.M., the carnival was supposed to start around 12:00 A.M. I wasn’t worried though, counting the stars kept me calm, without me even realizing it. Similar to a tough yoga class, as attention to the breathe makes the poses more bare-able and keeps the mind from wandering. I was focused on something more positive.

I realized, I’ve never found undisturbed tranquility from the stars before. Perhaps if I was home in this same situation: uncertain of which bus I was on, with people who I couldn’t communicate with, and with no idea where I was in the middle of the night, my reactions may have been different.

While on vacation, the dots in the sky may be more clear and appreciable. Now, imagine being in such a state while working, brainstorming new ideas, and in our everyday lives.

Rather than just remembering the visual, I took note of the emotions evoked. How I felt: Inspired, happy, pensive, philosophical, curious, intrigued, and fortunate. OK, the nerdy side of me made me wish I had an encyclopedia on space with me, so I could look-up everything I saw. Feelings and thoughts were anything but stressed or worried. What good would such thoughts have done, anyway? What good do such negative thoughts ever have?

“Stress is nothing more than a socially acceptable form of mental illness.” – Richard Carlson

A  reflection question for you: Relating this experience to accomplishments, how would changing our perspectives based on the positives around us, better support us in achieving our goals?

By the way, we did make it to the Carnival; however, how we got there and returned back to Buenos Aires is a story I’ll tell you in person as I would need to use a lot of hand gestures and facial expressions.

Esha Abrol © June 26, 2013