Like dogs, I find that people fall into two main categories–those who look down and those who look up. By down I mean looking at what’s in front of us–the earthly things. By up I mean looking at what’s up in the sky–the vision of things happening overhead.
Like Graidy, who, as part bird dog, instinctively looks up to find movement (as contrasted by Kiera, my herder, who instinctively looks down and around for movement) I’ve always been drawn to looking up.
I’ve been a star-gazer since I was a little kid. It started back when I had to take my first dog out one last time before bed every night. While she was looking down and sniffing around, I was looking up at the vastness of the night sky.
During the summers, when I got a little older, I started sleeping out in the backyard so I could stare up at the stars until I fell asleep. While most kids were counting sheep to get to sleep, I was counting shooting stars.
The thing I’ve come to love most about looking up is how this simple act often has a way of helping to put everything else back into the proper perspective. I’ve done my best to share this love with Cait. She, too, has become someone who now looks up. She now asks to be woken up when I get up to watch the various meteor showers throughout the year.
On one memorable early Spring morning a few years ago, Cait, Andrew and I got up at 4 A.M., wrapped ourselves in blankets, and watched the most spectacular display of star showers I’d ever seen. The fireworks were nonstop. As soon as one star whizzed by, a couple more would go streaking across the sky. Literally, you could count a half a dozen falling stars within seconds. It went on like that for an hour.
It’s been cloudy the last few nights here, but I’m hoping that either tonight or tomorrow night the skies will clear and I’ll be able to watch the Orionid meteor shower. If you’d like to take a peek, look in the area of the constellation of Orion around midnight. If the sky is clear, viewing should be good, because the new moon won’t interfere with the light from the meteors.
Was woken up at 2:30 this morning by the dogs. Just in time to catch quite a shower of shooting stars! Sitting on the hood of a car to watch shooting stars with your hubby really does sound romantic (even at 8 months). Hope you got to see a good show.
Hubby proposed to me watching this 5 years ago :-) We were sitting on the hood of our car..and I was 8 months pregger :-) LOL.