Better than starlight

It's the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month, commonly known as the "Mid-Autumn Festival". Traditionally, this is an annual celebration for the Chinese (and many other cultures): a time for family reunions, sipping tea outdoors, taking a lantern-lit stroll around the neighbourhood. A time to admire the splendour of a glimmering, perfectly round moon and reflect on the metaphor of wholeness in family and community.

Far as I am from my family, I'm glad it doesn't take a celebration like this to have me looking upwards. I love staring at the sky at night, any night. Growing up in an increasingly smoggy city near the Equator, I didn't get to see the moon and stars as clearly as I do now. It's made me appreciate every twinkle, twinkle I see from these not-so-little celestial bodies.

Image by Mirko Harnisch

"It occured to me then, and I said it to Paul, that there is something God made that is better than starlight. What is it? he asked me. It's you, man, I said. Me? he asked. You, I said, you know, friends, people, it's beautiful, really, that we don't have to be alone." -- Donald Miller, Through Painted Deserts

I couldn't think of a better quote to go with this occasion. I have so much "better than starlight" in my life, I could take on a power grid.

Thank you, my family (blood, ketchup or otherwise) and friends, for shining.