Last night was somewhat distressing and disheartening. I drove home around midnight and checked the pool. It was warm to the touch and quite inviting. I went for a midnight swim, and studied the dance of light and dark rippling along the skin from the refraction of silent waves. As I let the warmth envelope and soothe me, I felt some of the tension of the night dissipate. I laid my head back and looked to the sky. It took a moment for me to comprehend the intricacy above me, with deeper and deeper layers of glittering starlight visible the longer I looked. I even saw the bejeweled swath of the Milky Way, a majestic ribbon of possibility bisecting the indigo expanse above. I breathed deep, letting my small concerns and minuscule issues come into perspective against the enthralling enlightenment of seeing even a glimpse of a single facet of the Universe. How small our grievances are, and our sorrows, and our anger, when faced with the largest, most unstoppable force above me — Hope. And then, as if on cue, not one, but two shooting stars burned across the sky, one chasing the other like lovers at play in an endless field of velvet eternity.
