After church, an invitation to go walking turned into a decision to meet in the middle of the night to chase the Perseid meteors. Neither of our husbands were necessarily interested, so we happily took advantage of each other’s interest.
I had a busy afternoon and my friend said she’d find a good place for us to go.
At 11:00 pm, she pulled up at my house. As I walked out the door, I grumbled about the very overcast sky. Somehow the sky is always overcast on lunar eclipses and meteor showers. I often awaken in the middle of the night to see something, walk outside to a blanket of clouds…and no rain, unfortunately.
Driving an hour to see the sky
My friend planned to drive about 50 miles east to reach outside of the light pollution of our city and surrounding communities. As we drove, the sky began to clear.
We turned off the highway onto a desolate road, County Road 28. We passed some farmhouses and then found what seemed like a great spot in the middle of nowhere. We pulled out the camp chairs and found a great spot on the road. (Note that the great spot on the road happened after the unfortunate spot on the side of the road on an invisible-to-us red ant hill.)
We sat down and stared into heaven. Soooo many stars sparkled in the night sky. I hadn’t seen the Milky Way with my own eyes in a really long time. The amazing view astonished and delighted us. I couldn’t help but wonder at the works of God. Every feeling of praise and worship filled my heart.
As our eyes adjusted to the darkness, we began to see flashes of light across the sky. She saw two parallel meteors light up the sky.
Suddenly, we both saw the same scene. An amazingly large spark with an incredible tail, perfectly in our line of sight, streamed across the sky. We shrieked our delight. That was the most amazing meteor/falling star I’d ever seen in my life to that point.
The sky kept one-upping itself. We gleefully shouted and pointed for nearly two hours. We sat surrounded by lightning storms on the horizon which added to the night’s awesomeness.
About 1:40 am, my friend said after one more big one, we should probably head back. I just couldn’t image missing any of the meteors, so stalled a few times, but then knew we both needed to be able to function today. After the most gigantic meteoric streak either of us had ever seen, we packed up our lawn chairs and drove back to reality.
We stopped at a rest stop about three miles from where we sat. With lights ablaze, we could barely see the sky that filled us with wonder moments before. We drove the 45-minute drive back to town, increasingly losing sight of the wondrous heavens that captivated our attention and eyes. The cloud cover increased again and by the time we pulled into my house, I couldn’t see the sky at all.
With effort, knowledge comes
I can’t stop thinking about the difference in experiences at various points on the journey. The most convenient spot yielded a non-experience. As our effort increased, the variously imposed veils over the night sky disappeared until, finally, the night sky in all her glory unfolded to our view.
How like heavenly knowledge is this?
With a little effort, new insight appears. With greater effort, variously imposed veils over our minds and hearts fall away, opening the way for astonishing views and revelations.
Before my friend and I began searching the sky, my family book group finished a several months-long reading and discussion of The Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Our discussion rang in my ears as I sat watching the sky’s majesty.
The Savior has the words of Eternal life. Nothing else can profit us. … I advise all to go on to perfection, and search deeper and deeper into the mysteries of Godliness. A man can do nothing for himself unless God direct him in the right way; and the Priesthood is for that purpose. (page 364.)
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