To Sleeping Beauty, With Love, Insomniac

Oh, sweet slumber... such an aching delight after one has desperately scorned its seductive embraces night after night. Tender kisses ghost along drooping eyelids and gossamer caresses against weary bones. How could I have scorned your bountiful affections in exchange for insomnia's smoldering demands and cold grip! Limbs heavy with lethargy and mind numb with fretfulness...I now appreciate the sweetness of your loyal attendance and unwavering patience. How can one abuse such a necessity? 'Tis time to make amends. Dear faeries, I've found another piece of starlight.

I wonder if Sleeping Beauty ever felt grateful for the chance to rest her eyes.

Did she awake rejuvenated from her long sumber?

Stardust and Starlight

I was nestled in my blankets yesterday, sleepily rereading Stardust by Neil Gaiman and thrilling in the lyrical prose and magical realms. I love stars and the fantasies spun around them. The beauty of a star-speckled sky can be sometimes so overwhemingly beautiful that my heart aches. And it is so rare that I can remember to gaze upward and rejoice in the splendor of the dark heavens. It reminds me of all the other things I take for granted...transient things that can slip through our fingers if we don't fix a careful eye on them. Stardust and stars (such tiny bursts of loveliness) were actually the inspiration behind the title of this blog. A pocketful of starlight...of beauty, of magic, of wonderment.

"Though my soul may set in darkness,

It will rise in perfect light,

I have loved the stars too fondly

To be fearful of the night."

--Sarah Williams

Don't waste those raindrops of stardust; taste them and relish in their richness.

Saiunkoku Monogatari

I have a long standing love affair with the world of anime and manga (japanese animation and comics), so many of my lil' handfuls of starlight will undoubtly stem from this source. Such as today's dear find...which is the opening song of the anime Saiunkoku Monogatari. It draws dreamy sighs from my heart. ^^

Saiunkoku Monogatari revolves around a young noblewoman and her quest to turn the lackluster young Emperor of the fictional land of Saiunkoku into a good leader, while pursuing her dream of becoming a court official despite the barriers of her gender. This anime really resonated with me because of its themes of proactiveness, perseverance, and dreams. Of course, it doesn't hurt that it also boasts a cornucopia of bishounen. ^_~

The opening song, "Hajimari no Kaze:

Come what may...

"Come what may, I will strive to never let the starlight burn out." That single sentence embodies all of my new year's resolutions.

I've always wanted to capture some of the magic and beauty of the starlight of the sky. Keep it close to me like a talisman to ward off the demons in the darkness and monsters under the bed. Let it shine and sparkle and touch other people with its purity. Share those ethereal moments when I thought I saw the gossamer-like wings of a faerie fluttering by. And so, that is the point of this blog. To be that pocket that holds the starlight of ordinary and extraordinary nights alike. To treasure those things that make us love, laugh, cry, and smile. To discover some of that child-like wonderment and innocence that most of us abandon at childhood's end. To remind myself that life is made up of all those little moments as well as the grand ones.

Such beauty excites the soul.