I promised Amy that her mom and I would be back from dancing early, so we could sleep outside and watch for shooting stars.

Amy was ready and excited to sleep out in the open air with her Dad. She liked the idea of it much better than sleeping in the stuffy trailer, afraid that she would be yelled at for moving and jiggling the trailer springs.

We laid out our sleeping bags and got ourselves situated with dogs between us and stared up into the Wyoming prairie sky We talked about the milky way and when the little dipper would be visible. Amy saw a shooting star. I missed it. Amy said it was the first shooting star she ever saw. I saw one. Amy missed it.

This went on for a while - each of us individually seeing shooting stars, but none together. The cool night air was pleasant. We were getting sleepy.

Straight up above us, dead center in the darkness, a brilliant shooting star traversed the sky. We both saw it. We chatted through our drowsiness, thrilled we finally both saw one.

Amy and I drifted off to sleep with shared dreams.

The small special moments in life are the ones we remember and cherish most.