Shooting Star

Every August there is a meteor shower in the night sky, but only once in a while does it come with a new moon and clear sky up here at the monastery, 8000 feet altitude.  This year we were blessed with both new moon and clear sky on the best might for viewing.  Now one must be holy and in the state of grace to see a shooting star, as we call it.  The holier you are, the longer and more spectacular the tail on the meteor.  So I went out into the darkness around 3:30 AM, looked up and caught a great shooting star with long tail.  Now if you went outside and did not see anything, well, I have said too much!  What made me holy, and able to see the meteor is not that I pray a lot, but that I broke out of my routine to go outside at 3:30 AM.  I usually am doing something else at that time.  The monastic life is all about routine.  Good to a point.  But a meteor shower is not a daily event.  Sometimes, one has to leave their routine in order to experience something special.  Too many times in my past I have said I did not want to do something, and the real reason is that it interfered with some routine.  I am trying to dump that notion.  I am going to see the play, "Book of Mormon" on a Sunday afternoon at the end of August in Denver.  Tired from preaching, Pro Football on TV, is not going to get in the way of finally seeing a big time play in Denver.  Lived here many years and never did it.  Times they are a'changin'.