Stars

I wrote this for our newsletter. Figured I'd copy and paste it here just for fun.

Fresh from the Rocky Mountains near Aspen, Colorado, where I went camping with my son for a couple weeks, I am back in the city, a bit closer to sea level where the oxygen is thick and the temperature is high. And the stars are hiding.

I think the thing that hit me the most was the stars at night. I forgot. I mean I completely forgot that there were stars in the sky. At least more than a few scattered here and there. It was like I've been eating one of those tasteless winter tomatoes for so long that it never occures to me that they resemble tomatoes in shape and color only. And when I finally taste a real one, the explosion of flavor wakes me up as if from a restless sleep.

Seeing the milky way, those millions of stars like a soft cloud band stretching across the sky literally took my breath away. And even on that moonless night, the stars caused the prairie to glow as if from within. I felt the connection to power so vast and wondrous that I had this strange feeling of being an infant, cradled in creation.

And then appeared a meteorite, so close I swear I heard it, that caused the hairs on the back of my neck to dance.

May we all re-remember the feeling of the stars in the sky.