Imagine a clear, dark, nighttime sky. There's a faint crescent of the moon illuminating on portion of the sky. And the rest of the vast darkness is broken by multitudes of tiny, twinkling pinpricks of light. Stars and planets that are each individual and unique. When we view each small pinprick, we are not seeing those stars and planets as they are at this moment in time. We are looking into the past. We are receiving the light of past days. The light of passing years. And, no two people receive the same light. We look up only to gaze backwards in the arrow of time. Scientists study this information; this information from the past that never ceases to flow to our eyes in order that we can learn about the future.

We exhibit this behavior every day. We look into the past - our memories - and we use the information we recall to guide our futures. Our brilliant constellations of memories can only affect us if we give them meaning and a frame of structure by which we understand them. It is an entire galaxy of experiences that is exclusive to our existence in this universe.

Those experiences can be widely varying, and can be both good and bad, and involve a great deal of change. It can involve a lot of raw vulnerability. And it can also involve our inaction.

But it is solely our choice if we decide to act. We choose to make or to not make those decisions. We can decide to make good choices. Even if those choices prompt difficult change. Change is necessary, but, more often than not, it is never easy or simple. The very act of making a choice is courageous. The very act of being vulnerable is courageous. There will always be things that don't go the ways we had hoped. There will always be times when we don't know what to do. There will be those times when we are so terrified, we can't speak. We will always encounter fear, hurt, and darkness; hopelessness, doubt, and uncertainty.

And it won't just go away. It will take time, and that is okay. That is what makes us who we are. It is what makes us human on this rough road we call life. We can choose to live and fight onward, no matter the obstacles we face.

Now, when we choose to love, that choice is reflected in every single person around us. We are, all of us, beautiful constellations of love, pain, joy, and sadness.

When we write, time is eternally frozen at that moment. A few days ago, I was sitting by myself, just thinking. Reflecting on all of the things I have experienced, and all of the things that hadn't worked out. I thought about the things that made me happy, and the things that nearly broke me. I thought about the people I love, and where we all are in our lives. I drove home still thinking, and when I got out of the car at my home in the country, it was a perfectly clear night. I stopped and looked up. I gazed upwards and saw the infinite blackness of space broken by small bright specks of pure light. We are completely surrounded by an infinite world we will never know. Oblivion. Everything was still. Silent. The opportunity for a moment to pause and dream and attempt to comprehend our existence.

There are the moments we can fathom, and then there are the moments we live. Our greatest desires lie in their conjunction. We are comprised of every experience we have ever had to endure. We are made of the worries, the anxieties, and the joys of the present. We are composed of every idea, every dream, every concept, and every future we have imagined for ourselves. Everything we have ever thought and everything we have ever done makes us who we are.

We are constellations. We are bright lights in a dark world. No matter who we are, we can shine and be a light to those who cannot see the light that they give to those around them. We can be that shining hope for someone.

We are the constellations and we are, all of us together, in everything we experience, a universe of beautiful life.