Lights

One of those images that burn into one's brain, exciting the imagination.

        Amsterdam-bound from Delhi, India. Night.

        From the window of KLM 37,000 feet high.

        When I should have been sleeping.

A brilliant, clear crossing of the globe; incredibly distant, other-worldly, noiseless.

I'm floating, unseen between a universe of sky stars above and land stars below.

What caught me: a perfect imprint of the Black Sea in the dark, rimmed with the lights of cities and towns where a million people were doing their evening things ― eating, talking, putting the kids to bed, laughing, loving, worrying, arguing, praying, sleeping ― unaware of a benign silent observer.

Impossible to photograph those moments and almost impossible to find a duplicate of what I saw, but NASA somewhat obliged after the fact:

The (unfortunately small) crop

The original NASA photograph:

The Black Sea has always had a magic appeal for me. Celestially reinforced. Sheer heaven.