I know my place is home where the ocean meets the sky, I'll be sailing.

It's Thanksgiving Eve.  I have so many blessings in my life, but what I'm most thankful for is being right here, right now....

We walked out to the beach tonight.  The sky was dark, full of stars, and the waning half moon was inches above the horizon.  The ocean waves were loud and made conversation impossible, so the three of us, John, Joe and I, stood in silense and drank in the pitch blackness, waiting for our eyes to adjust to the night.

John left to "crab" with the boys, so Joe and I hung out on the wooden walkway.  Joe had his camera and took shot after blurry shot of this absolutley incredible moon.  No amout of pixels, no shutter speed, no special lense, could caputre this moment.  I was standing,  had my arms leaning on the wooden railing and I had my head tilted back as far as my neck would allow.  Every star was visible, I wanted to memorize this moment...the stars, the waves, the salty smell...  I love this Earth, this Universe.

Something moved and it took me a second to register what was seeing.  I finally just pointed and managed to grunt "look" to Joe.  It was a meteorite, shooting across the sky.  The brightest "shooting star" I've ever seen, it had a long tail trailing behind it.  It lasted maybe 10 seconds, and then was gone.  We both stood there in silence, neither of us knew what to say.  We were awe struck.  We had just witnessed the death of an ancient mass of rocks, dust, water...a mass that could have been the size of our Earth at one time in it's existance.  Maybe a million years ago, another being stood on this once life supporting planet that I had just seen die, and witnessed the death of another planet. 

I made a wish on my "shooting star".  I can't tell you what it is.  I will say, though, that's pretty amazing.