Star Gazing

     I’m not able to spend much extra time with my children during the summer months, so I have to make the time I have count.  I love making lifetime memories with them.  Most of my favorite ones from my childhood didn’t cost my parents anything and they usually didn’t involve leaving the yard.  I’m pleased that we’ve added some great memories to the family collection this summer.  The latest one was viewing the Perseid’s meteor shower with my oldest daughter, Shelby.

     My husband Ed and I went outside for awhile to check out the show before we woke her up.  With meteor shower viewing, the conditions have to be just right; not too much moonlight and not too many clouds.  In the first fifteen minutes we saw shooting stars everywhere!  There were small ones and long ones and some that were so bright that their sparkly tails stayed burned into the sky for the better part of a minute before they faded away.   I went back inside to fetch Shelby.

     She had been sleeping but she was up with just one whisper that it was time.  Seconds later we were walking outside, bathrobes on, hand-in-hand.

     The night was soft and dark.  Dew was already clinging to the blades of grass and our sandals were soaked in seconds.  The cicadas sung loudly in the trees overhead.  Fireflies competed with the stars for our attention.

     We crossed the street to the neighboring farm.  Eddie and the neighbors were already stretched out in lawn chairs, faces tilted skyward.   Shelby and I took our places and it wasn’t long before the show started.  The only frustrating thing was that the sky was enormous (we were sitting in a great big field) and you couldn’t see the whole sky at once.  This meant that you would miss some of the shooting stars.  We all sat silently in the darkness, until a star would streak across the sky.  Then the silence would be broken by excited shouts of “Hey, did you see that one”? and “Awww, I missed it”! 

     At one point it occurred to me that a “good mom” wouldn’t let their child stay up so late at night.  I felt guilty for a few seconds, but then I pushed the thought away.  Sure, maybe “good moms” wouldn’t, but “great moms” sure would!