Walking home last night I admired the darkening sky as one star and then another brightened. Recognizing Orion I wondered again about how long that light has been traveling to end its journey in my retinas: from Betelgeuse, 650 years; from Rigel, 860 years; and from the Orion Nebula, 1500 years. As dozens and then hundreds of stars emerged, how extraordinary it felt to be the one point in all the vastness of the universe where all these faint rays of light should converge, each born hundreds or thousands of years apart, traveling so unimaginably far to reach me.
My imagination turned to memory: uncountable stars in a clear mountain sky, far from the city. Continuous streams of light from all of these stars flowing continually in every possible direction, and every step I take collides with a unique intersection.
Even in daytime under a mostly sunny sky the rays from these distant stars mix with the light of the sun and still end their journey right here.
See Milky Way Rising.