My favourite time of the day is just after dusk. As the sky deepens to blue then ink then black, and one by one, the stars come out.

When the breeze dies down and the background roar of valley life finally quietens. People shut curtains and lights go out and the world settles down to peace. Finally, I breathe out.

I stand outside the house and look up into infinity. Stars, planets, picking out their different colours the longer I look. The air is easier at night. Scents on the breeze tell me of coming warmth, of gathering clouds, of flowers ready to bloom. I relax my eyes and stare upwards, face wrapped in darkness, soul soothed by those tiny diamonds in the sky.

How long have we stood here and looked up? This village, this house, this fleeting life. I feel small but held by these stars. Who looked at this same patch of sky when that light first started its journey? How many lives blinked in and out as each star burns brightly into the darkness. Constancy. Vastness. Something else away from the surface busyness and bustle and fighting and anger in the world. Something calm, and ancient, and beyond us.

In recent years, the sky is streaked with satellites, more and more each year, more than I count on my fingers in the few short minutes I stand. That incessant reminder of human technology in a place that is so much more. Look up, and dissolve into time, but no longer entirely. Now there are constant reminders of that busyness, circling constantly above our heads. I don’t know how I feel about them. Unease, I think. A little novelty, a little resignation.

But beyond the endless man-made pinpoints of light, the planets still shine. Constellations glimmer and move slowly across the sky. The moon rises and sets, no human bases on it yet, although I’m sure it’s not long. I don’t know how I feel about that, either. Disturbed, but unsure why. A kind of grief, lightly, hinting. But for now moon stays calm, rising and setting, waxing and waning. And of course, it will continue.

All these thoughts, I send up to the sky. To the constant stars, to the passage of time. Time deeper than humanity. And so it continues.