August Night

I awokened shrouded in fog.  It is August 13th and last night we lay on the ground outside the tipi to watch the meteor shower.  We lay on mats and blankets and look toward the heavens.  The sky is clear and the stars are twinkling.  My friends and their children, my daughter, my wonderful husband, the dog and I are there to see the often quick flight of the falling stars shooting across the sky.

It was after midnight when here and there our friends left to go home to their beds. It just was Emily and I now.  We were enjoying the coolness of the earth after another very hot day of 90 degrees.  The dampness fell leaving the grass glittering from our far off barn light.  The lightening bugs flew above the plants in the horse pasture that surrounds my tipi.  Just that day we found the pasture to be alive with the butterflies of summer.  The night crickets sing a song that is almost deafening in the quiet.  We heard noises of other animals that we couldn't see in the dark.  Were they fighting or playing, our dog Jessie went to see.  She soon comes back, panting from the effort and all is quiet again.

Emily and I discuss going back to the house, neither of us willing to move from our place under the sea of stars.  Hoping to see just a few more shooting stars before calling it a night.  We can't come to any decision about leaving and cover up a little more to protect us from the cool dampness.  The dog lays nearby on her own blanket.  We hear the owl in the distance, he sings a comforting song.

We drift off into sleepy dreams.  The stary sky changes as the earth revolves slowly and we sleep.  Once again we are awakened by noise from critters in the dark, Jessie growls and we wonder what she knows that we don't.  We quietly lay there watching again for those falling stars.  It isn't long before we are asleep again. 

I remember waking again, the birds are starting their morning song and you can no longer see the stars, there is a beautiful glow to the sky, although it was still dark.  I know that sunrise can't be far behind, I see that fog has covered us, our hair is damp and blanket are dripping with moisture, and yet we are dry underneath them.  At 6:15 am the sun is just starting to rise, I am delighted to see a morning sunrise.  I say a little prayer for the coming day, knowing it will be filled with the joy and laughter of our dear Arkansas friends.  I am so filled with the wonder of it all, I just had to share it with you.