Dancing with the stars

October 23, 2012
I went outside the other night to watch the Orion meteor shower.  I stood out in the back yard for quite some time until I just got too tired or too bored to watch.  I never saw a single meteor but what did happen was a spark to a memory of years passed.
The time was the early 60's.  I was probably on the shy side of my teen years.  It was a summer night in Gilchrist and a sight was suppose to be seen that night.  The Russian satellite, Sputnik, was reported to be able to be seen from the naked eye.   A few of the neighborhood friends of my older brothers had joined us in a line of boys laying out under the stars.  No one could afford sleeping bags so we stretched out on top of some quilts with loads of blankets over the top of us.
The stars were especially bright that night and if you looked up into them, they seem to draw you into their presence, wrapping you in their sparkling luminance.  We lay there joking and laughing at various stories and thoughts that young boys think of.  I recall a few scary stories were intertwined.  Then, one of us saw it.  "Look!", he shouted and pointed in the Eastern sky.  A small flashing light could barely be seen.  We all went deathly silent as we watched the strobe like light as it slowly crossed the sky.  It seemed to mesmerize us as we lay there looking up.  Slowly, boy by boy, we all fell asleep as we watched the beeping light cross the sky.
What gets me as I recall back at the memory was how taken we were by that small flashing light that even with the incredible consuming vision of the stars did not pale in our eyes to it.  The number of stars were countless as the sands on the sea.  Most of them larger than our own sun and yet, we were so used to seeing them that we just took them for granted.
The beauty of God's creation can be seen, smelled, and touched.  Yet, we take most of it for granted.  I would challenge you to re-experience it's grandeur.  Go out on a clear sky night and lay on the ground, looking up at those stars.  Drink in the vision.  Go outside after a summer rain and breath in deeply taking in the smell of fresh rain on dry parched earth.  Remember that smell.  Draw a glass of clear cold water and drink it's sweetness.
Yesterday, I got to hold a young baby not a day old.  I looked down at his perfect skin...his peaceful sleep.  I think I saw one of his first smiles.  I looked over at my 26 year old daughter and remembered the day that she arrived, the same way.
Take nothing for granted.  Don't forget the simple things.  Live your life, looking for them daily and it will be filled.