Stars Falling From the Sky

last night was the annual Geminid meteor shower. this is the first meteor shower that i have ever seen and i must say that if you ever have a chance to see a meteor shower, drop absolutely everything to do it. it was perhaps the most breathtaking thing i have ever seen. i saw more shooting stars in the first 20 minutes than i had seen in my entire life. i went to a hill above granada, that also happens to have a breathtaking view (although not of the same magnitude) of the alhambra and the city of granada. last night i felt as though i was in the most priviledged position in the world. i was laying on a blanket staring up at the starts watching a galactic 4th of july, and if i looked down a little i had the best view ever of the alhambra by night with those spectacular night lights giving it the impression of a floating castle, a little to the left and there was the entire city of granada layed out. that view is really strait out of some painting or something, its just too good to be true. it was like what van gogh was trying to capture in starry night, the interplay between the natural lights and the artificial ones, that seem to merge together into a coherant dream. so i lay there from like 11 till like 2 in the morning with my jaw dropped and my tongue hanging out (except for the ocasional shivers, it was pretty damn cold) directly under orions belt with my body perfectly lined up with polaris just watching the sky roll past me. the stars were just falling left and right, it was at least one per minute, and sometimes they would come in bursts, left and right, up and down. it was one of those moments when youre so amazed that you forget to think and you can really just relish the moment, and it doesnt even require years of meditation or practice, you can just sit there like a baby, completely absorbed in the world around you. and it was in this state of mind that the most amazing thing i have ever seen happened: a huge shooting star, but i mean huge. i was laying there and when i saw it i jumped up and yelled in utter amazement. it was so big and burned for so long, i honestly thought it was going to land dead smack in the center of granada, it was like the scene out of some alien movie where the kid sees the space ship land or something. if the sky we see is 180 degrees, and most of the meteorites travel like 5 or 10, this star traveled at least like 30 or 40 across my line of sight. it was so big to, it was much bigger than any star in the sky, or any other celestial object other thant he sun and the moon. truly a special experience. i can only wonder if anyone else saw it. i was surprised to see that no one else had come to the spot where i was at, i guess not many people knew about it, i only found out earlier that night because my dad told me. they should really make this sort of information more available, i mean soemthing like that has to be one of the most amazing experiences a person can have in their lives, and i saw nothing about in the news, granted im not exactly a CNN fiend. i wonder how many people around the world were looking up at the stars at the same time i was, i wonder how many people saw that beautiful star fly through the sky. its almost as if i feel somehow connected to them through that shared experience. these are the sort of things that make you feel so very small, but at the same time like you are part of something so very big, its not a daunting feeling, but rather one of grand artistry. being a man with a relatively sophisticated knowledge of the starts galaxies and the universe (compared to my distant ancestors), and perfectly aware of the physical nature of the phenomenon i was experiencing i must say that i still felt extremely humbled and awed by the power of the divine and cosmic forces that operate outside of our sphere of understanding. i can only imagine the impression something like that would have on someone who had never seen the stars with anything other than their own eyes. i think that it would make you feel as though there were something up there, something really really big up there. i think that there is a certain comfort in feeling small compared to something like that, it makes you feel as though all your worldly concerns just arnt as important as you thought they were. a truly humbling and awe inspiring experience.



so this is a picture taken from the alhambra. if you look at the hills above the houses there is one to the left with the old wall on it, and another one to the right of it, not the one with the green on it and the radio tower, below that. on that hill is where i was laying watching the stars.




peace and love,
em

ps. did anyone else see this meteor shower last night?