The Confluence of Stars

<a href="https://www.deviantart.com/clark96/art/All-the-bright-places-715238815">photo by Clark96 @ deviantart. </a><br/><br/>after Jennifer Niven&#8217;s All The Bright Places<br/><br/>I never understood how planets pullbeloved to beloved, tiny stringsencompassing our everything, the wholeof us, even the mysteries, the thingswe'd rather laugh away. A smile, a wink,and nobody unravels the disguiseor so I prayed. I never dared to thinkthat you would pull me into open skiesand strip me down, unveiling all the griefI wrote unto myself, a second skin;enamour me in loveliness, beliefthat something beautiful could dare beginwhere sorrow grows; a tender beating heartcould flourish after being torn apart.<br/><br/>&#8212;<br/><br/>A few years ago, I finished reading a book by one of my favorite authors. It was an incredibly heavy book, one that dealt with the aftermath of suicide, and trying to find peace in that afterward. It hit me fairly hard, and I wanted to follow it up with a book that was lighter, less emotionally draining.<br/><br/>So I started reading this book by an author I&#8217;d never heard of. It had a cheery blue cover, with post it notes, and birds and flowers, and I thought it would be light&#8212;so I never read the synopsis. I had no idea what I was going into. <br/><br/>Oh, that book hammered on my heart. It wasn&#8217;t the lighter, more carefree book I was looking for. But it was the book I needed.<br/><br/>That book was Jennifer Niven&#8217;s All The Bright Places. And it became my book. A piece of my heart. If you&#8217;ve spent any time around me in the last few years, I&#8217;ve probably recommended this book to you. It is so very much. <br/><br/>Pretty early on, there were rumors about a movie being in development. Jen (who, somewhere along the way became a dear friend, mentor, inspiration) started working on the screenplay. We knew that Elle Fanning was attached, but, for so long, that was the only news we had.<br/><br/>After years of waiting though, the All The Bright Places movie will be co