My dogs want out late at night to clear out the thing they sense in the backyard. Usually it is racoons, who climb into the trees and drive Ben and Maggie nuts. (my border collies). I go out to hush them, and sit on the steps for a while, taking in the pleasant feel of the summer night. The leaves are usually rustling in the cottonwoods over to the south. Those trees have gotten tall, and reach up to the stars that hang just above their tops. This time of year I look out at Scorpius, the constellation that chases Orion out the sky.

Looking up at the stars brings back fine memories, like a year ago last May, when Ben and Maggie and I were camped on a 10000 foot ridge on a clear, windswept, moonless night. The light from the stars was bright enough that I could walk along the ridge without my flashlight, once my eyes adjusted.

And there was the time my old dog Bud and I hiked 10 miles up the Pine Creek Valley in the Collegiates, above timberline. We were exhausted, and went to bed right at the 8pm August dusk. By 4am I was ready to get up, and found an angled boulder to lie against and gaze up at the night sky. Every minute or so shooting stars from the Perseid Meteor Shower streaked across the sky. Me and Bud layed there until the glow of dawn appeared down in the eastern lowlands.

My most spectacular night of star watching occurred a few years ago when Ben and Maggie and I went out to the plains of North East Colorado on a cold November night. We ate early and were sound asleep by seven - out on the prairie, where there were no lights and no sounds, except for the coyotes that yipped right after dark.

At 1AM I got up to see the Leonid meteor showers. Ben and Maggie came out of the tent with me, and curled up on top of my sleeping bag, to capture some of my warmth on that cold night. The shooting stars started slowly, one every minute or so at first. At 3am they came on strong - such that when I looked over to the horizon I would see multiple stars falling and fading away, that reminded me of raindrops from the heavens. I saw five at once, arranged like the 5 dice - with four in the corners and one in the middle, all traveling at the same speed and direction. Needless to say I was wide awake, all night, thrilled by the show. I knew I was witnessing something rare and special. Scientists later said the falling stars on that night - November 18, 2001, were very close to the rate of a Meteor storm - 1,000 per hour. It was the best shooting star show in 35 years, and we may not see another one like it in my lifetime. I finally went back to sleep at 5am.

A few years before that I got my daughters up at 2am on a March night - a school night. I loaded them and the dogs into the car for a drive up to Echo Lake on Mt Evans to see the comet Hyakutake. It was darn cold when we piled out of the car at 10,000 feet, but what we saw made the frigid temperatures and lost sleep a small deal. The comet stretched out across a blanket of stars in the alpine sky. I held my arm up to measure it - it went from my elbow all the way tomy wrist. I watched my girls standing beside the spruce, next to the frozen lake with their dogs, staring up into the heavens, and was awful glad to be a Dad.

Its such a rewarding experience to have children to share what you love, to tell your stories to, to take walks with as they grow up. I made my share of mistakes, like most parents do, but I hope that some of what I am has been a positive influence on them, that will remain with them.

I guess my hope is that they will retain a yearning to raise their heads now and again, to pay attention to the the mystery and beauty as the heavens spin around our place on this earth, to have a feeling of awe and respect and love for the natural world.

But they have their own lives now, and I have mine, sitting on the steps with Ben and Maggie, listening for racoons in the yard, listening to the night breezes, looking up at Scorpius, and its big red star Anteres, brightest star in the southern summer sky.

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"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle."

-Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science."

-Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

"Yes, I am a dreamer. For a dreamer is one who can find his way by moonlight, and see the dawn before the rest of the world."

-Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

"I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night."

-Sarah Williams (1837-1868)

Lightly stepped a yellow star

To its lofty place,

Loosed the Moon her silver hat

From her lustral face.

All of evening softly lit

As an astral hall-

"Father," I observed to Heaven,

"You are punctual."

-Emily Dickinson

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I gotta live my life and write my songs beneath these western skies

Chris Ledoux 1948-2005

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