Sleeping in Space

Almost every night since late February I’ve slept on our deck, watching the star-scape creep westward month by month. Scorpius recently came out of hiding and now the great space scorpion is standing on its tail in the middle of the southern sky. Jupiter has been sailing toward the evening glory of Venus, Power and Love nearly touching, then passing each other by. This is how I’ve been clocking the intricate movement of days, weeks, and seasons, using the glowing, shifting cosmos as a timepiece. Two thousand years ago, Polynesians sailed and paddled the Pacific to find a lone fleck of an island by following wave patterns, clouds, winds, fish, birds, dolphins, and mostly stars. At the same time, on the other side of the world, Minoans were crossing the Mediterranean Sea by stars, setting off from the island of Crete fixed on the big guns of Arcturus, Altair, Spica, Aldebaran, Sirius, Rigel, Betelgeuse, and the phosphorescent triad of Orion’s Belt. Each star rose over the position of a…