fifteen steps then a sheer drop

have you ever glided across the lake in the morning? when the sun lingers near the horizon, scraping upwards for the sky. the water is a clean mirror, and the only blemish is the mark you yourself leave behind. but after the many hours and the many people that cross the lake throughout the day, don't you miss the smoothness of the surface when all you encounter now are the waves?

have you ever walked at night outside of the city, outside of the suburbs, where when you look up, you cannot find a piece of the dark sky unoccupied by stars? when you can see the glow of the milky way strewn across above you. and if you just keep staring upwards, you can feel its massiveness & scope that makes it so unreal but more real than the things happening around you. and when you stare upwards as you walk, how the sky does not move at all in relation to everything else, and you wonder how gigantic the universe actually is, why we're on such a little planet, how small our lives are in comparison to everything else, but how you still value every single little thing that's dear to you. the stars you look at are mere illusions, light that has traveled millions of years to trick our eyes. considering that, how can you tell what's really still there and what has passed away without our knowing?