I remember my brother telling me about the Perseid meteor showers some years back. That during the peak of the meteor shower in the summer months, folks should be able to see them just by looking up for 30 minutes or so. However, having lived in Los Angeles all my life, opportunities to be out in the middle of nowhere to see the stars properly just didn’t happen often. Somehow I never made it out for the phenomenal sight.
Now that my husband and I sort of live in the “middle of nowhere” – or really it’s just less illuminated in our small town, I was sure we could see the meteor shower from our terrace. My husband was actually quite shocked I had never experienced the sight of a falling star, literally what they call it in Italian. The peak of the meteor shower coincides with the Catholic holiday on August 10 for St. Lorenzo, the date of the saint’s martyrdom. This curious coincidence in timeframe led many to call the Perseid meteor shower the tears of St. Lorenzo or St. Lawrence for us English folks. I sort of like the melancholy terms like falling stars or tears as reference to the meteor bits smashing into our atmosphere…
I started thinking about how people make wishes on stars and generally people tend to put their trust and hopes in something else, rather than in themselves and their abilities. Why is that? Is it because sometimes you reach the point where you feel powerless to control our own destiny? I think we need inspiration and hope from elsewhere at all times, there’s something about the mysterious powers above and such. There are things that can certainly be out of our grasp of understanding…but we must also believe in ourselves as well. Make a wish, but then make it happen, I say!
Inspired by seeing my first meteor shower with my husband this past week, I decided to make a new desktop wallpaper for my computer. This way I can remember the experience a bit longer and think about all my own wishes and dreams, waiting to happen. I will be reminded that I have to help make them happen as well!
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To receive this super cute motivational poster as a printable PDF, 
2 Comments
I love your story behind the picture you made- it’s great. Your expreiences make me want to go back to Italy so much
Italy is always a good choice for a vacation!