Sitting amongst the red and orange hoodoos I have become motionless. The sheer sight of what I am seeing has grasped my attention fully. As I lay back into the dirt around me I see the universe. The stars are so bright I reach out the grab them, only to remember they are light years away. Mars peaks out from behind the scatter of stars. It is a view that makes me feel so small, but also so significant. I am here in this universe just as these stars are and I am lucky enough to be engulfed in their beauty. The stars are not the only light to be seen. While I am wrapped up in the dark of the night to the horizon I can see a light that tries to rival the stars. Lights that are never gone, shining during all hours of the day. These lights call to humans and beckon us to them, just as bugs flock to lamps. These lights line the casinos, hotels, restaurants, and cars of the Las Vegas strip. Why anyone would choose these artificial stars to the ones I was currently viewing I could not understand. I knew that I contributed to this light pollution just a day before just by spending the night in Vegas, but I had not realized until now what I had been disturbing. By leaving the comfort and safety of the street lamps I found the universe I had been missing out on my whole suburban life. With the flick of a light switch I was in a world unlike any other, Bryce Canyon in that moment was unmatched in beauty.
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