You can’t see it in that picture. But can you? Look closer. Look closely and you will send one dot of light. That was the sparkle from one little star on the most starry night I have seen in a long while.
My friends and I were camping in Nachikuppam, a little village near Krishnagiri in Tamil Nadu. It was June, and as we turned into the village, the light from the highway dimmed. That was when we looked up and had to turn our eyes away from the light of a thousand stars.
Through that night, we slept on the charpoy, and watched as shooting stars winked me by. I had last seen shooting stars in 2003, I think. I made wishes on them, as we all do. I trembled a bit in the cold. But for that night, the Universe was displaying its finest wares to me – the lull of the wind, a moving moon, and stars dancing a Saturday night away. It was the sparkle dust sprinkled by the pixie fairy – it was Life sparkling. It was beautiful, immense, and I could only feel light. Like there was a lit-up corner from then on in my heart that I can always turn to when I feel the darkness ebb around me. When that happens, I know that only because it was dark, I saw all those stars.
The sparkle in our lives is not borne from cut-polished diamonds of comfort, but from the rough-hued edges of pain and hurt. Don’t run away from the pain. Don’t surrender to your ego. Live with the pain. Because then you know that you are sparkling.
