What do you see when you look up at the stars?

What do I see when I look at the stars? I suppose I'd like to say something that sounds like the words of someone who is an expert in astronomy, but the only two words that come to mind are, "The heavens." Of course, like most people, I usually do notice the usual constellations; but I can't say they're what strike me the most.

I am, of course, the sort who does wish on the first star; rather than the sort who grabs the telescope and runs into the yard when some heavenly event is scheduled to occur. Besides having plenty of wishes that I'd like to have come true; I guess I need to see the dark, night, sky as that vast expanse of "somewhere out there", dotted with sparkling diamonds that are somehow made of magic. To me, those sparkles in the night sky are our chance to experience our nightly dose of quiet magic that separates what are often some fairly unspectacular day-time skies.

And then there are the shooting stars that streak across the otherwise still-appearing, night sky. These are the stars that, alone or along with others, each with its own route, dart across an otherwise familiar night sky; and remind us that for all the lovely "sameness" and tranquility of the sky we're so used to seeing; part of the magic of the familiar night sky will always be the way it surprises and delights us for reasons we can't quite understand.

When I look at the stars, even though (in spite of what I've said previously) I know a lot more about them than I did when I was a child, I still see a night sky that looks very much the same as it did when I was a very small child, when the world and I were both so very different. When I look up at the stars (and in spite of knowing that the night sky is not nearly as quiet and still as it appears); I see eternity and still, for some reason, believe they are magic enough to make wishes come true, guide us through the darkest night, and remind us that we (like they) have not really changed all that much - no matter how many night skies were have seen.