Christmas
2018
Have you ever
fallen asleep while laying in the middle of a parking lot at midnight gazing up
at the Milky Way?
Underneath your
beach towel, the asphalt is still warm from the day, but the evening air is
cool after the heat of the afternoon.
Crickets and frogs and owls serenade you from the edge of the
surrounding forest as the stars slowly brighten before your eyes. The Big Dipper comes into view. Orion’s Belt.
There’s the Little Dipper and Polaris.
Could that be Venus, or is it Mars? Is that a shooting star or a satellite?
And as you lay
there next to the four people who mean more to you than anything else in the
world, with no cell phone service or television to distract you, you begin to
contemplate the glory of creation, to think about how very infinitesimal you
are in this incredibly infinite universe.
You realize that what matters most is right here and right now with
these people in this place. You feel
connected to all of the hundreds of millions of people who have looked up at
these very same stars for millennia, and you let the stress of 21st
century life slip away.
You talk a
little, not much though. Nothing more
than, “Did you see that shooting star?” or, “Look! There’s the Seven Sisters constellation!” or
simply, “Oh wow!” The time between words
spreads out until all you hear are the sounds of the night and the slow, quiet
breathing of those around you.
And then time
stands still, and the sky becomes one with the asphalt, and you are floating,
falling, connected to those four people by an invisible, unbreakable cord that
reaches out beyond you, and connects you to everyone who has ever gazed at the
night sky in wonder, and those who will someday do the same. And you feel yourself letting go, and peace
washes over you.
At some point,
you realize you’re all sleeping in the parking lot of Mammoth Cave National
Park, and it’s well after midnight, and you should probably get up and go to
your cabin so you don’t get run over by some late-arriving RV. But you don’t want to break the spell of
being surrounded by the people you love, so you linger a little bit longer
while everyone else sleeps, drinking in the miracle that is this life, this
place, these people. And all you feel is
love.
That is what I
wish for you this holiday season…wonder and peace and love.
Merry Christmas!
