Venus

Tonight, just before 7PM, I stepped out of the house for a bit of fresh air. The breeze was pleasant. The street was strewn with unswept fallen leaves.

Up in the western sky was the planet Venus, also known as the Evening Star. She was very bright. I just stood there staring at her brilliant beauty, recalling this passage from The Return of the King by JRR Tolkien:

"There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond reach."

I tried to take a picture of it using my camera phone but the picture does not do it justice. Which is a good thing because it will encourage readers to go out -- with proper socual distancing, of course -- and gaze at Venus for themselves to see her beauty.


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