My Very First Time ...

... to see a "shooting star" and falling meteor!  A couple of  weeks ago, I was alerted by my dear friend that the Perseids meteor showers were to peak that night starting around 11 p.m. "Look in the northeast sky", he added.  "OK!", I replied with my utmost semi-feigned gusto.  It wasn't that I didn't care to see the meteors.  I definitely did care, but had tried again and again over the years, even lying on my back on a blanket on the bumpy floors of back porches, with mosquito repellent sprayed all over me -- gazing heavenward, for hours, but did not see any shooting stars. The disappointment went way back to when I was a kid and the other kids (especially my two older cousins) would exclaim, "Look .. I just saw one". "Me too, right over there"  And maybe they did see them, at least sometimes -- when they claimed to.  I admitted that, no, I hadn't seen anything happening in the sky.  Many times after that when I was alone, I looked upward thinking maybe a meteor might just be chancing by and not be put off by my standing there with my neck in achey stiff mode.  But to no avail :)

So when my friend joyfully announced that "tonight is the night, starting around 11 p.m. in the northeast sky", I just couldn't drop the ball on his enthusiasm.  And so I mainly did it for him.  At 11 p.m. I went outside with my dog, Dixie Lee in tow (might as well take care of the dog-walk at the same time), and then she and I stood next to the fence so I could have something to lean on.  To the northeast there was a convenient gap in the trees, which was nice and made viewing much easier.  Soon Dixie started getting fidgety because we were standing still and she wanted to go sniff for rabbit trails; I held my ground and said "we are going to stay right here for five more minutes".  I could feel the tears stinging at the back of my eyes. Then somewhere between nine and twelve minutes after 11 o'clock I said "OK, I guess we might as well go in now".  And as I haltingly prepared to take my eyes off the sky, suddenly a magnificent object came bounding, bursting, hurtling out of the northeast sky, making a semi-arc and trail of magical light in sort of an east-to-north direction.  There is simply no way for me to articulate the feeling in my chest and gut -- those moments were so thrilling and amazing -- they brought laughter and tears of joy.  It felt like it was MY meteor with my name on it (excuse my ego, please), MY shooting star!  I mean I've waited all these 5411 years to experience it!   :)

Very memorable.  Aside from true love, there is absolutely nothing as wondrous and awesome as Nature and the Cosmos!