Image by Wanyi Huang

This week at common art, I randomly drew with colored markers a cactus growing under the stars. I shared my art with S., who asked me, “Have you seen the sky at night without lights and moonlight?” He described his experiences outside the city with only the starlight singing in the sky. His experience in the starlight shower was so vivid in his brain. When my image reminded him of this joyfulness and mental stillness, he felt gratitude. They finally see the bright stars in the sky when everything is dark. Indeed, Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.”

I feel deeply grateful that an art piece could be an image of peace, take us out of the city, and transport us to the specific moment we shared. We both held a drop of tears in our eyes when we talked about the place of peace. We all agree that we sometimes forget to carefully watch out for ourselves when we find ourselves in the darkness. If we look up, however, we could discover the most beautiful moment as a transition in the sky.