Monday, December 26, 2022
For Cindy, our Star Keeper.
The Star Keeper lives on top of a green hill, under an oak tree. Every night, they sit and watch the stars, tracing the lines they make and listening to their stories. One day, a little child from a nearby village walked up the hill, and spoke to the Star Keeper.
“Star Keeper, what do you do up here every night?”
“I keep watch over the stars, and I sing their stories, little one.”
The child pondered this. “But they just sit there. How can they tell stories?”
The Star Keeper smiled at this. “There are thousands of stories in the stars, little one. And there are songs, too, if you listen.”
“Songs?” the child asked. “How can they sing songs?”
The Star Keeper just kept smiling. “Yes, songs of joy and laughter, and songs of heartbreak and despair, too. The stars show us other worlds, and yet they also reflect who we are. If someone looks for despair and emptiness, they will find it in the black between the lights. If someone looks for wonder, they will find it as well.”
This confused the child a little, but it sounded mysterious and grand all the same. “Can you tell me one of the stories, Star Keeper?”
“Of course, little one.”
And so, every night the child would climb that hill, and sit with the Star Keeper and listen, and the Star Keeper told stories, stories of wonder and love, of darkness and despair, and the ever-coming light of dawn. This went on for a long time, summers and winters passed, and the child grew until one day, the Keeper turned to them and said, “I have no more stories for you, young one. Now you must craft new ones, yourself.”
The young one, for a child they were no more, simply asked, “So what happens, now?”
“Now, I must leave you. My time grows short, and soon I will walk amongst the stars I love so dear. You have listened to my every tale, and remembered well. You have grown up kind and good, and will continue my legacy.”
“But,” asked the young one, “Where will you go? There has always been a Star Keeper here. What happens next?”
“My child,” said the Star Keeper, “You are the next Star Keeper. Otherwise, why would you have been drawn here? The stars called you, as they did me, and now I must leave you, just as my teacher left me. Do not weep, for now I ask that you tell my story too. And I will leave you with this; one day, when all the world is turned to joy and laughter, when evil has fled and the stars and the moon and sun all dance in the sky together, then I will return, and we will sit upon this hill and share stories once more. Farewell, Star Keeper.”
And with that, the cloak the Keeper wore began to shimmer and grow, flowing away until the hem began to sparkle, flowing into the sky like a star-road, which the Keeper set foot on and began to walk. The young one simply watched, until the shimmering cloak the Keeper wore could only barely be seen, then the new Star Keeper blinked, and there was instead a new star, at the end of a great road of stars we call the Milky Way, and before them lay a new cloak, black as night with a shimmer of stardust. The Star Keeper picked it up, put it on, and sat below the great oak tree, watching the stars, tracing the lines they make and listening to their stories.
Farewell, dear friend. You will be dearly missed.
