Shooting stars have held special meaning for me because of their propitious appearances at key moments of my life….always unexpectedly coming and bringing with them a sense of hopefulness and their alignment with what seemed to be God’s assurance that all would be well…..and, in spite of dark nights now and again, when neither stars nor moon were visible, it always has been exactly that….. well. Not always with finances, friendships, family, career or otherwise, but always well with my soul as I poured out my heart to the Lord. Thank you, Sean Dietrich, for the reminder to look upward!
Writer Sean Dietrich wrote recently about shooting stars…..
“ I saw a shooting star. A big one. I was exiting Walmart. Pushing my buggy. It was dusk. The sky was pink. I looked into a cloudless sky and there it was.
A long streak shot across the sky moving faster than a knife fight in a phone booth.
I stopped walking.
I closed my eyes.
I made a wish.
I cannot divulge what I wished, of course. Otherwise the wish will never come true.
What I WILL tell you is that the last time I saw a real shooting star, I was 15.
Fifteen was a bad year for me. Actually, they were all bad years. I had a tragic childhood, painted with abuse, violence, suicide, grief, codepenency, loneliness, and crappy Top 40 hits.
But when you’re a kid you don’t really know how bad things are if your situation is bad. Everything is normal to you. You don’t have any clue that you’re miserable. Life is just life.
So anyway, I was a mess. I didn’t have friends because, well, it is not the nature of most children to befriend the pathetic. My father’s death left a stain on our lives. I quit going to school and became truant. And for many years I was unable to look people in the eye, I felt too far beneath them.
But on that night so long ago. That star.
The world suddenly seemed so mysterious. So big. So full of mysterious things. I closed my eyes. And I wished.
Looking back, I now realize that I was young enough to still believe in magic. I still had enough little kid inside me to be pure of heart except for the time I set fire to the living room rug.
At that age, I still believed in wishes. I still closed my eyes when blowing out candles on birthday cakes. I still threw coins into fountains. I still avoided sidewalk cracks to protect the health and wellbeing of my mother’s spine.
Somehow, my boyhood wish came true. I am amazed that I never noticed this until now.
My wish came true little by little. Moment by moment. Steady but certainly. As though the whole universe had conspired to help me.
And although nothing happened the way I expected; although my childhood circumstances did not change, I changed. My heart grew. My courage found me. My wounds healed.
Something pulled me through. Someone, dragged me through the hard times.
And if my most recent wish comes true, he is about to do the same for you.”
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