Under a Canopy of Stars

I am now staying in a cabin high in the mountains above Bishkek in the last phase of my vacation. Though it is nice, I didn't come here for the brisk, refreshing mountain air. While it is a wonderful feature, the solitude of a private cabin in a near-empty resort isn't the reason either. The chances to go horseback riding or careen about on an all-terrain vehicle are actually disincentives for me. And I certainly didn't come here for the endless supply of mare's milk I've been offered.

Last night, lying in a field of wildflowers, atop a hill, above the resort village is when I remembered the reason I was drawn here. Something in my soul was craving the exhilaration that comes from lying under a canopy of stars. Encountering the vast, night sky fills me with a sense of wonderment, combined with awe and humility, that I seldom experience in my daily routine. Perhaps for those of us not attuned to rote religious practice, it serves as a form of the spiritual.

As I relaxed in quiet bliss, I suddenly heard a trample of forceful footsteps rapidly approaching. It would be my fate, I thought to myself, to have my star gazing interspersed with a robbery. I turned to face my attackers only to find a striking white horse moving toward me, curious to see what strange creature was lying in the meadow in the dark of the night. Ah Kyrgyzstan. It is livestock, not robbers, with whom one must share the night sky. After the horse deemed me harmless as well, then we both quietly continued our business under the glittering and expansive Kyrgyz heavens.