LOOK TO THE STARS when life gets dark, and you will always find your way. On a day like any other, lost in my thoughts and struggles — lost in the rapture of the clouds, sailing across one of the last skies of summer; are we ever really alone. Never really alone.

The stars are there to guide you; the reflection’s in the water. Keep your heart open even when you’re hurting, so that the wind and the music may pass through open wounds.

The half moon shines and I want to look deep into those eyes, your soul, which comes alive like the moon at dusk. We’re not alone in this world. Lights shimmer on the trickling water in the stream of the park.

I notice pages spread on a bench from a distance; you keep trying, facing the future, learnin’ from the page and the night, the golden grey clouds and the skyline surrounding.

People. People. People. We are the stars. We are the page and the words written on them, the music in the wind.

People love you for you. Not what you’re supposed to be, nor who you think you have to be. You. So take this one day at a time.

Life is a continuous exploration while struggling.

That’s what a friend wrote to me in a book which she gave me as a gift. She didn’t know I needed that message, didn’t know that I was hurting on this day and that her words would open up my heart and bring tears to my eyes as the book fell open to the first page on my bed, as if she held my thoughts, my days, my pain in her hands and in the purple pen scratched.

And in those hands which burned with love, she watched my struggle fade. On the surface I was all smiles; how did she know…

Those feelings of anger or pain, confusion, emptiness, notknowingness; they’re emotions too, powerful as the sun — but just like the daylight they may fade.

Just like daylight, they may burn a hole in our chest, and maybe that heat feels good, but it’s not all of you. Use the pain, the difficulty, the love, for it’s all the same thing — feeling — clay to mold, energy to express, light to cast.

Pain brings the universe down to the present, but in the present while there’s pain, there’s incomprehensible beauty, for pain elucidates beauty just as the night enlightens stars.

When everything around seems dark, says the poet Rumi, look again. You might be the light.

You, who smiles on the crosswalk at dusk, drenched in a purple sky, thinking about a memory or a song — your smile makes my heart sing. It helps me carry on.

I marvel at the beauty of the moon, drifting above the city. I wonder if it guides you too. The evening is hazy, the time of day when eyes begin to sparkle and we become lovely in different ways, when light bleeds into shadow and orange lanterns glow.

There doesn’t need to be something to smile about to smile as you cross the road. That gives me a flicker of inspiration, and isn’t that amazing, that we all have the potential.

We all possess that capability to smile in the station, on the crosswalk, in the grocery store; we all carry the words to spark a conversation, to compliment somebody just because you think their jacket’s cool, not because you’re looking for something in return.

We are the light in this world.

It doesn’t matter who you are, what you look like, where you come from.

We are a starry night.

It’s a week hence, the Sunday morning of October 1st.

It’s pouring rain, and I couldn’t be happier. There’s a subtle change of weather — autumn in the scent of the heat, the rain, the roses, the road.