Born under the stars

I wake up at 3:00 am and notice how sweet the air; the soft breezes that cool the night. The sky is full of stars and I watch as some shoot across the universe on a journey of their own. I am thinking how lucky I am to watch this with so little effort from my mattress on the floor.

Then, a horn beeping in the night. It beeps and beeps all the way down our road and by the gate and we all run. We grab blankets and gloves and then there right on the road, right under all those shooting stars and a crescent moon a mother gives birth with family and friends and midwives and driver all looking up at the night and then at the baby and thinking how glorious it all is.

In time, she is moved inside and another baby is born and as I walk from place to place I touch and carry and give and feel all the gifts that so many people have given to make all this possible.

Sometimes our steps feel lonely and even frightening but we all know that somewhere out there there are people who are walking with us and offering the simple gift of a blanket that we, thousands of miles away, wrap around a baby born outside on a star filled night.

Perhaps that is what stars are for; to remind us that we are connected by an ever changing night sky that we all can look up at and share no matter where we are.