I’ve always felt a close connection to nature and its never ending beauty and mystery. Thoughts about Mother Nature and our lives on Earth run through my mind every day. It intrigues me how if seen through the scope of the entire universe, our Earth represents a microscopic dot among millions of other planets.

Because of quarantine, I have been trapped in my home, alone with these wonders about the world. I have felt so isolated, so separated from nature. Despite this, I found my thoughts pulling outside the walls of my fine home and to the greenery of the trees outside. Sometimes, I would sit near these trees, and just think about life. Even between normal tasks, such as online school or doing homework, my eyes wandered towards the sky and trees outside. With a good book, I can sit on a bench beside the lake, and read and marvel at the beauty of the water and its reflection of the marvelous sky; in the nighttime, I could talk to the moon through my clear window. Through this quarantine, not only did I get closer to nature, but I also found myself and realized my true desires in life. It was surely an eye-opening time for me.

My deepest connection to nature occurred on the night of October 29, 2020. I was doing my homework in my room, when I looked out my window to gaze at the full moon for a little while. I noticed something out of the ordinary in the sky at this point. A small dot, northeast of the moon, caught my eye. This was no ordinary star; this was special. I immediately searched up if any planets or comets may be in our view that day, and what I learned shook me head to toe. That small dot was Mars! It’s orbit perfectly lined up with Earth’s, making Mars visible to the naked eye.

“Mom, Mom, Mom,” I yelled as I was rushing out the door, “Mars is in the sky!”

Sooner or later, I realized that my mother wasn’t home, so I ran out the door, looked up, and my jaw dropped in awe from what I was seeing. Wind pushing against my face, I just couldn’t perceive what I was looking at. Although it seems like a normal star on a normal night, it was Mars! I just stood there while I was trying to understand the fact that I am seeing another planet. Confused, my mother opens the door behind me.

My mother asks impatiently, “What’re you doing? Why’d you call me?”

“That’s Mars in the sky,” I answer, unable to keep in my excitement.

So, my mother and I pulled up two chairs to sit on, and we just sat there, looking up at the dot in the sky. Although my mother left a few minutes later, I sat there for an hour, not only staring at Mars, but having some deep thoughts about it. My mind is racing with thoughts about Mars at this point. After taking a photo with my phone, I lay back, and start thinking. I thought about how for the first time in my life, I saw an extraterrestrial object, other than a star, in the sky. At this point, I felt like I was one with Mars. No matter how many times my parents called me back inside, I couldn’t leave. I had never felt so close to nature until that moment. It amazes me how one dot in the sky could have such a dramatic effect on my life. Though all the bad happening because of coronavirus and the riots going on, my hour spent staring at the moon took me away from all of that, and made me focus on myself and life.

This event put a lot of things into perspective for me. Staring at Mars that day made me look at life through a different lens. First off, this encounter with Mars made me really think about the universe as a whole. If we stood on Mars, we would see Earth as a dot as well. No matter how much we fight each other or how much we hate each other, we are all living on Earth, I thought. Our problems are of no concern to anyone else out there in space. Secondly, seeing Mars made me think about our history of life. We have made modern civilizations over the course of thousands of years, and no matter how much we modernize, a retreat back to nature is a human characteristic. Seeing Mars, I thought about how simple life could’ve been if humans never created civilization. Li Po’s words about the Lu Mountain Waterfall finally made sense to me at this point. His retreat from society and to the waterfall made me just want to ignore all concerns of the concrete world, and retreat to an abstract sense of mind, where I’m alone with my thoughts.

It’s amazing how seeing a dot in the sky which would have easily been mistaken as a star changed my perspective on life forever. No matter where I go, this oneness with nature I gained through seeing Mars will never leave me. In a world where technology and social media is in control of our daily lives, nature is like an escape from the false reality we’ve created in our phones. Seeing Mars in the sky alleviated a sense of separation not only from the technological world, but from Earth itself. I felt like my subconscious had left my body, and it wandered to the stars. That night, I did not feel like I was on Earth anymore; I felt like I was among the stars, gazing at the beauty of the dot in the sky.

What artists and/or writers inspired or influenced your work?

Mrs. Gallagher and writers that wrote about Mars, such as Emanuel Swedenborg, inspired my writing of the short story.

What was the most difficult part of your writing process for this work?

The most difficult part of the writing process was putting into words how it felt to look at Mars. The way I was feeling in the moment was very abstract and spiritual and to put that feeling into words was a struggle.

What is your ideal writing environment?

My ideal writing environment is around trees and with a clear view of nature. Near my home there is a bench surrounded by many trees, a beautiful lake, and a clear view of the sky.

How do you resonate with your piece? Why is it personal to you?

This piece is personal because I experienced the viewing of Mars firsthand and the piece is about my own reaction to it.

What message do you hope to convey to the reader through your piece?

I want to convey the importance of being surrounded by nature and because we are stuck inside due to the pandemic, it is possible to get a sense of wholeness and relief through nature.

Photo by Tom Barrett on Unsplash