This past weekend, late Saturday night, on a long dark road back to our hotel I saw the most vivid shooting star ever. The other day I researched whether or not we were in the midst of a meteor shower. It turned out that we are. The Eta Aquarids comes around May each year and last weekend it was at its peak. The Eta Aquarids is the first round of two sets of meteor showers that arrive every year when we pass through the dust trail of Halley's Comet. The other set is the Orionids in October. The last time the comet was visible to Earth was in 1986. I figured there is a lesson in there somewhere about not being able to avoid the past.
If the Universe keeps us running through the dust trail of a comet that last passed by over almost 24 years ago then how can we expect to forget the things in our past, good and bad, that brought us to where we are today?
At some point we will pass through the dust trail of our past possibly multiple times. What we do is what is important. Do we run towards where that piece of meteorite may land hoping to be hit by it or do we run the opposite direction in fear of being hit by it or do we just admire the flash in the sky, tell our family and friends about it, and move on?
For what it is worth, good and bad, guilty or blameless, I was glad to have seen that shooting star and I know that if I had turned that corner any earlier or later I would have missed it.
This may have been a sign that I am where I need to be now or it could simply be a chunk of minerals burning up in our atmosphere. The choice is mine.
