Long Hollow

Tom came home with a horrible headache last night and went straight to bed. I felt bad for him, but that's not what this post is about.

It's about stars. And wishing upon stars.

Because he was out of commission, I took over his nightly chores, which included feeding the puppies. And that's how I found myself shivering out on the front walk, staring up at the sky while the dogs ate, searching for meteors. There was supposed to be this fantastic meteor shower going on, a geminid meteor shower, but I didn't see anything special, just the same few stars – the half moon reflecting on our metal roof was too bright, I think. It was still fabulous, and I tried snapping some shots of the reflection, but I was shivering and Belle kept jumping on me…

(Those are my excuses if the photos don't turn out.)

I finally gave up and came inside.

But then this morning at 5:45, when I turned on the kitchen television while I started the coffee, the nice newsperson reminded me again about the meteors, so I dropped the coffee, slipped a green fleece jacket over my pink fleece robe and ran outside, grateful that we live in the country where no one would see me in such a fashion faux pas. 

I didn't even grab my camera. I just wanted to see a 'falling star', dang it!

So I stood there on the rock path in front of our house, neck painfully and unnaturally arched backwards so I could stare up at the sky, and I saw…nothing. Well, I saw a few stars, but that was it. 

I decided to give it a few minutes.

Soon more stars appeared, like freckles on a red-headed child on a summer day…faint stars filling in the spaces between the big ones.

That's when I remembered something I'd forgotten: the vastness of the universe. All those zillions of stars above me reminded me that we're just tiny dots living on a tiny dot amongst zillions and zillions of tiny dots.

Why does that always make me feel good?

So many stars…

At that point, I figured I had missed the meteor shower, but I couldn't waste those stars.

"Star light, star bright…"

And then I saw it, just on the edge of my vision. Very faint, but I'm sure I saw it. A meteor. A falling star.

I saw three more before my neck told me I better stop.(It's been giving me fits all day.)

But it was a magical morning, for sure.

A morning of falling stars. A morning of wishes.

Fingers crossed, soon I'll see mornings of wishes come true…

(I wish I could claim these photos, but the one above is of the Perseid Meteor Shower by Gary Randall and the one below by Creation Photography, both snagged on FlickR. Click the photos to see more of their work.)

This is my contribution to Jillsy Girl's One Word Wednesday Blog Hop. This week's word is "Wish". Want to play along? Just write a post and add it to the list. But whether you play or not, be sure to check out the other participants.

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