story behind the heART: Lucky Stars

These are a few of my lucky stars.

'if a shooting star'

'the skys a blackboard high'

We took a roadtrip to the Sierras to spend the weekend with our cousins and play in the snow. My kids were 2, 4 & 6 - the perfect ages for building snow people, painting the snow and being delighted with every sled run.  The novelty of the cousins, makeshift cooking in our lodge rooms and snow activities were all eclipsed my my two year old's wonder with the night stars.  Both being a city kid and generally being inside and in bed at night meant the dark nights unencumbered by competing light sources and the luxury of a vacation schedule brought a fascination with the stars as they appeared each night.

One night after the older two kids were asleep with their cousins in sleeping bags on the floor, my two year old and I went for a night walk. He listened to the crunch of his snow boots on the snow, holding my hand as he mastered walking with these giant forms on his feet. He counted the stars, mused as to their varying brightnesses then, reached up to me. "Hold me up," he said, gesturing for me to pick him up. I held him on my hip while his outstretched hand opened and closed, chubby fingers touching palm to make the familiar sticky sound. In earnest, he grunted reaching his arm upward.  After several unsuccessful attempts to grasp a star, he explained in the quiet of the night "I need a ladder - a red ladder - and I climb up and get one."

Yes. A red ladder.  What we all might do with our own red ladder. 

This idea of grabbing a star and keeping it in my winter coat pocket has stayed with me.  Often the form of a star represents to me a chance or opportunity, frequently a chance filled with grace.  "Thank my lucky stars!" we sometimes say.  Where are those lucky stars?  Where is our proverbial red ladder to reach out and grab one? The illusive lucky star, the moments that give us second chances or highlight the grace of a crisis.

The idea of hanging my lucky stars on the fence is both amusing and an homage to the grace that surrounds us - grace that wants to find us if we will reach out our hand, or open our mind and heart.

These are a few of my lucky stars.