Tonight while putting Tara to sleep we talked about binoculars. When I asked her why she wanted them for her birthday, she said, “So I can see the stuff in the sky – like stars, and shooting stars.” I got goosebumps listening to my 3 yr old talk about shooting stars. And my mind raced ahead to the all the star gazing activities we can enjoy together as a family. I might even agree to go camping for this one reason. (I am sure Agam just nodded his head in disbelief)

I asked Tara if she knew more about shooting stars. She did not. So I proceeded to explain. When a small rock or dust travels super fast from space toward the earth’s atmosphere, it heats up and starts to glow, and it appears as if we are seeing a shooting star. She was quick to ask, “What happens when it falls on earth?” I said, “It becomes a part of our world.” What I wanted to say was that it becomes us. We are made of stardust. But that is a lot to explain to a 3yr old. So I opted out of that conversation.

She pointed to the glowing planets and stars in her room and said, “Our world is earth. Stars become earth.” She was so close. I did not pursue further. But I cannot wait to talk to her about this stuff.

As I patted her to sleep, I remembered this one night on the Big Island in Hawaii, when Agam and I took a very long drive back from one part of the island to the other, on a cloud-less, and moon-less night, and I saw the Milky Way. It was a marvel I had never seen before. The scene of our entire galaxy hanging above the horizon, with the chariot of wild waves under it, appealed to me like some cosmic form of god. Not that I need a visual impression of god, but when I pray, and I often do, I recall the scene from that night in Hawaii, since that is closest I was to some form of cosmic being, who might as well be god.

Sigh! Ocean is calling and I can just feel it. There’s something pulling me towards the ocean since a few weeks now. I am a crab (aka cancer), and I need to be close to water from time to time, or else I get ‘crabby’.  I seek a lot from the ocean. And it never disappoints. I am missing it’s moist hugs, and gushing embrace. I feel so small, and so insignificant in it’s company. When I get tired of being an adult, I need the ocean, to make me feel like a child. It’s time. Maui – here we come again 🙂 Fingers crossed for a starry encounter on this trip.