A Spotted Blanket

   I spent most of my childhood living in Beggs, Oklahoma. Anytime I tell someone this I quickly follow with, "It is about 45 minutes south of Tulsa," because, let's face it, not many people know where Beggs is. I am genuinely surprised and excited when someone does know about my little town. It almost feels like a secret we share.
   If you haven't already guessed, Beggs is way out in the country. I spent a lot of time outside digging in the dirt, climbing trees, or playing with our abundant supply of cats. Seriously at one point we had nine or something like that. On the plus side, we never had a mouse problem!
  
  Now a days I live in the city. I love all of the places around me here. Giant parks, Five Guys Burgers and Fries, splash pads, Hollie's Steakhouse, Hey Day, Raising Caines, The Warren Movie Theater, Yamatos... Oh the food. Oh the fun. I love the city.

You know what we don't have here, though?
  Stars.
Ok so we have some. Maybe on a clear night if I was to go outside and stare at the sky for a while I could make out a few good ones but there will always be light pollution. They will never be as bright and as beautiful as they are in the country.

  I loved watching for shooting stars in Beggs. My dad either shared this passion with me, or maybe he just was passionate about his daughter, because he would come home from a long day of work, help me gather blankets pillows, spread them out on our front yard, lie on the ground with me and we would wait. We would look up and try to spot the quick, bright, bold streaks in the sky.

  Under the stars, my dad would tell me jokes and I would tell him about school. Sometimes my brothers would join us. Most of the time it was just me and my daddy.
When it was just us two he would share his faith with me. We would talk about how God made all of the stars. I imagined God throwing a spotted blanket over the earth every evening. I couldn't comprehend back then how much more complex our universe is.
  The universe, galaxies, planets, stars.. infinite, shining, orbiting, burning, exploding.. I mean..whoah.

  Then if you zoom in on our little town of Beggs, down an old dirt road, even farther down a gravel driveway, you would see a girl and her dad pointing at the sky and making wishes.
 
   On one particular night I hope to never forget, you would hear my dad say, "What is that smell?"
Then you would hear a grown man let out a yell when he realized that one of our many cats decided to use the blanket as its own personal toilet. Unfortunately for my dad, the pile of feline feces was right by his leg.
  It got all over his pants.
  Needless to say that night our star gazing ended rather abruptly.
But it was a while before they ended altogether.

  Thank you Daddy for sitting with me so many of those nights and just being there.
Thank you for teaching me to recognize the beauty that God has created.

  I can't wait to teach my kids the same lesson.