A moment of wonder

 I feel like a child, looking at things with fresh eyes. I’m not familiar with the forests of northern Georgia. It’s a new environment.

One of the big surprises occurred a couple of days ago about 6 a.m. I went outside to toss some coffee grounds and looked up. There was Orion.

I was astonished I could see the stars. The hills and trees block the ground light — the light pollution that keeps many people in this country from ever getting a good look at the night sky.

From the backyard, it’s a narrow view through the trees. In addition to Orion, I could see Aldebaran, the red heart of Taurus, but that was about it.

Yesterday, the cat got hungry and nudged me awake at 5 a.m. The celestial clock was an hour earlier. Orion’s bow was in view, but his backside was not. The sky was dark enough so that I could see the Pleiades.

Somewhere, in the back of my mind, I knew all those things were up there. The surprise was being able to see them.