Goosebumps and Meteor Showers

“Goals: to never not be awed by the universe. to have a goosebump collection that could be its own meteor shower” - @andreagibson

I am always in awe of everything. 

I can’t believe I get to live this life and love as much as I do. 

And so many things, but mostly you, gave me all the goosebumps on earth to create enough light of its own meteor shower....

Looking across St Mary’s lake in Glacier National park at age 25 after I’d lost my first teaching job. 

One of my friends told me that at this park people sit in complete silence and I couldn’t ever imagine a place like that could be real.  - 367 goosebumps and falling stars in a meteor shower. 

Seeing the rings around Saturn the first time at age 31 on a mountain in Hawaii. - 1248 goosebumps and falling stars in a meteor shower. 

 

Climbing the Eiffel Tower after dreaming of going there my entire life. - 124 goosebumps and falling stars in a meteor shower. 

The first time I fell in love love. - 619 goosebumps and falling stars in a meteor shower and shaking in that person's arms that night.

And the depression I fell into for over a year when that love ended, only to come out of it 6 months after therapy, fragile as a flower. - 6 fragile goosebumps as I went into therapy for the first time and 942 when I left as stars in a meteor shower.

Getting a call that I'd finally be selected as a Fulbright after 7-8 years of trying, then getting a phone call a day later that I was selected to run the Boston marathon in 9 weeks. - 26.2 + 7-8 goosebumps and falling stars in a meteor shower. 

Skydiving in Puerto Rico and landing on a beach at sunset. - 430 goosebumps and falling stars in a meteor shower but with no sound in the free fall.

Watching 79 year old Joni Mitchell sing "Both Sides Now" live on stage 9 years after a brain aneurysm where she had to relearn to sing, talk, walk, so many things. She sang from her toes, her heart, her soul. We turned on our cell phones to light up the crowd and she told us we looked like constellations and star dust. And I cried. - 1 million goosebumps and falling stars in a meteor shower. 

Seeing the trailer for a documentary about the Joplin tornado, many years after it ripped a scar into the Missouri landscape. - 512 arm goosebumps and falling stars in a meteor shower... and then my entire face had them too.

Kissing her, the one I will always love and miss the most, at the end of our first date. And then at the top of a waterfall while watching the sun disappear. And then the last time I kissed her at her door before I drove home never to be in her arms again. 05-21-1986 goosebumps and falling stars and falling tears in a meteor shower. 

Having an autistic student tell me my deceased dog was now a beam of light and rode the heavenly train up to the heavenly gates and how much he loved the train ride. 908077 goosebumps and falling stars in a meteor shower. 

....

There are so many stars in my life.

Juxtaposed with so much sadness.

But I hope I will always look up at the sky and see these,

and see love.