Meditation #1: Upon Taking Out the Garbage

My tradition is to take out the trash after LOST which means far too late, when I am tired. But tonight I feel good, am enjoying my wife and my life and my kids and as I walk back through the frozen grass of my back yard I happen to look up and see the stars in a clear, brisk sky and the moon spilling over onto everything and washing out all but the brightest and most beautiful stars and wanderers and a plane flew right through Orion and I imagine all the passengers covered in stardust and the earth and the houses and the plumes of my own breath and the crisp pinch of a million frosted fingers on my face and I think to myself what an amazing and wonderful place God has made and we haven't managed to completely mess it up yet I can still see him through the street lights and hear him over the whoosh of the late night, homeward bound cars. And after all that to curl up with my wife in a too-warm bed while my kids sleep in the next room, in a house just a bit too big for us. My God, how blessed we are!