The Meteor knew one day the same could happen to it as had happened to its siblings. It isn’t a question of “if” as much as a question of “when-“ sooner or later every meteor was pulled from its path, by gravity or one of the other intangible cosmic forces at play, and sent sailing down towards one celestial body or the next.
Today was its day- or night, as it ended up. Suddenly it felt that it’s path had shifted, and without the ability to reach out and stop this turn it waited to see where it would lead. Nobody had ever heard from a meteor after it fell but the stories and legends had lives of their own- they were fun things to consider while sailing through space but the cornerstone sentiment was there is no sense in fearing an inevitability, and the meteors had decided long ago that the path nature chose was the path meant to be. The Meteor wished for more control of its fate, as it was sure many had before it, but in the absence of such mechanisms the only thing left to manipulate was its mindset, and so it soared across the sky to its new home with a slight, anxious smile to see what was next.
On the way down the Meteor began to become more and more nervous about what awaited it. It flew through the Milky Way and wondered how it could ever make an impact in the shadow of such an enormous, magnificent setting. It flew by the gorgeous gas giants with their spiraling, stormy surfaces and wondered how it could ever be seen as beautiful by the eyes of its eventual neighbors who could see these jewels just as well. It flew by satellites as it descended, their lights blinking rapidly with each transmission home, and worried that it would never give as much back to the world as they did with the information they furnished. As it plunged into the atmosphere it sunk past a space station, saw astronauts looking over through the thickness of its windows, and caught a wave of fear. In the presence of all these other magnificent beings, these magical sights and scenes, what could the Meteor possibly do to set it apart? It only hoped that it would land somewhere far away from anyone else, where none would see it, so it could live its life in peaceful isolation. Perhaps this was not exactly what it desired down deep, but with all things considered, it felt safest. It felt the most sure.
The Meteor blazed through the night sky in a near blinding bloom of light, cooling down slowly into a technicolor display of the power and beauty nature alone holds within itself. The heat was immense, turning thousands of grains of sand to a deep green colored glass as it crashed into the desert with what the Meteor assumed would be its last impact on the earth and anything or anyone else.
“This is not so bad,” thought the Meteor. “I am intact and this view is pleasant. I am connected to this earth through the elements running within us both, however far separated I might feel. My old friends Sun and Moon will soar above me for visits. Most importantly, I am alone, and will stay that way- free of judgement, of disappointment, of pain and of pressure.”
While they could imagine what it meant for something to be alone loneliness was not a concept known to the meteors, as they were always together until one day they were not. If loneliness had ever been experienced by a meteor this one was not aware of it, and the idea it might miss out on things without a companion never moved across its mind as it settled into the newly fused sands to sleep.
In the morning it awoke to shuffling and murmurs. As it collected its bearings it realized that it was actually not alone as it had hoped to be the night before- there were people now, walking around the Meteor and speaking about it to eachother. “Hello,” the Meteor said, seeming to catch them all by surprise.
“Good morning!” said one of them in return. “I am sorry if we woke you up!”
“It is ok,” replied the Meteor. “I did not expect to see anyone here when I landed last night. If I’m being honest, I had sort of hoped I wouldn’t.”
The man wore a vest with many different glittering attachments- small contraptions made of metal and glass, the sun glinting giddily off each one as he moved closer. “In that case I am very sorry we disturbed you,” stated the man. “I am a scientist and these are my students. Last night we saw you enter our atmosphere as we observed the night sky and this morning we had to come looking for you.”
“You came here for me? Just to see me?” the Meteor asked, puzzled. Why would it be any point of attraction when one could look at those beautiful planets in the sky, when there was so much exciting information coming down to earth from their ships and satellites and space stations?
“Why?”
“Well, it is not every day we get to see a real live meteor. You are the first I have ever seen with my own eyes, and I have been watching for you all my life.”
“Me? But why? I am just a rock.”
“You truly are not.”
“But I am! I do not glow or swirl or shine. I bring no news. I have nothing to share with you. I am just a rock, much like the trillions of tiny ones you stand on.”
“You are a rock, yes, but you are a rock from space. Every night for years I have dreamed of finding a rock such as yourself. You do not see what I see when I look at you. The striations along your sides tell of so many stories, so many encounters. The flecks of this mineral and that one throughout your body are of incredible educational value- you may teach us with one small sample more than I have ever taught any student of mine. You are magnificent simply because of who you are, because of what you are, because of where you have come from. There is nothing you have to do to be special- all you have to do is, well, be.”
The Meteor did not know what to say. It did not immediately believe the scientist, but why would he lie?
“I do not know about all of that” the Meteor told the scientist. “You may take a small sample of me, and I hope it will be of value, but I think I would prefer to be alone now.”
“As you wish,” said the scientist, collecting the pieces of the Meteor he needed to continue his studies.
“Again, I am sorry to have bothered you- I just could not have ignored all that you are,” and soon the crowd was gone.
The Meteor considered the things the scientist had told it throughout the day, but it still had a hard time accepting them. After all, they were only the words of one man, and as with every other being in the universe one’s words are hard to accept as sure. But it did feel good to consider that he had been telling the truth- that maybe it was, in fact, just as special as he said. The Meteor spun this idea around sleepily as it fell into a nap.
When the Meteor awoke it awoke in much the same manner as before- to murmurs, though of a different pitch. It looked around and found a woman and child, a little girl, scarcely as tall as the knees of the larger being. “Good afternoon,” said the Meteor.
The girl was behind the woman’s legs in a flash, peeking from behind as though it expected an explosion. “Good afternoon,” the woman replied shakily. “I hope we are not disturbing you.”
“It is ok. I do not have much else to do here as it ends up. Are you here to study me as was the scientist?”
“Not exactly,” said the woman. She nudged the girl out from behind her and the Meteor could see she was holding a piece of paper tight in her hands. “This is my daughter, and we are here for her” she explained.
“Oh?” said the Meteor. “Why would she want to see me?”
“Because you’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen and when you came through the sky last night I was outside with my mom because I wanted to catch a lightning bug like I saw on TV but my brother said there are no lightning bugs where we live but my mom said maybe if we looked really hard we could find one and right before we went inside I saw a burst of colors way up high and my mom said it was you and I drew a picture of it and it’s right here because I wanted to show you the picture” the daughter blurted out, barely pausing for breaths. She panted as she held the picture in front of her like a shield, straight out for the Meteor to see.
“That... is me?” the Meteor asked, staring at a whirlwind of color set before a dark night sky.
“Yes.” said the girl.
“I looked like this when I came down here?” inquired the meteor, still somewhat shocked. “I was that colorful?”
“You were more colorful!! I used every color crayon that I have and it still was not enough!! It was the most beautiful thing I ever seen and I told my mom I want to be just like you and she said I can’t exactly but if I try hard I can learn to light up the sky the same way!!”
If a Meteor could cry it might have cried, but the Meteor did not understand the feelings it was having, as it did not quite understand feelings at all. “I... thank you” said the Meteor, collecting it’s thoughts. “I do not know how to teach you to be like me, but I believe your mom is right. Do you see the green glass below me? I want you to take a piece of that- a piece of me. You can keep it with you. Inside of that glass is all of my power, and you can hold it the same way- you will have to learn on your own, but one day you will light up the sky even brighter than I did before you.”
The little girls eyes were wide as she approached the Meteor, looking back at her mom with each step, finally bending down to grab a piece of the green glass below.
“Thank you Meteor!” said the girl as she and her mother turned to walk away. “I will think of you every day and every night!! And the next time you see colors like yours in the sky just wait for me to land next to you!!”
At home, once her daughter was asleep, the mother took a piece of the glass into her workshop where she made the jewelry that supported them both and paid for the crayons, the paper, the granola bars and water bottles used along their earlier adventure. She polished it gently, until it had a radiant shine, and wrapped it tightly in gold wire. In the morning when her daughter awoke she was wearing a brand new necklace, green and gold resting beautifully on her olive skin. It would never be lost, and it would always provide power whenever extra was needed. The daughter would stare at the glass and see the whole universe before her, feeling just as she had staring up into the sky the night the meteor fell to earth.
Back in the desert the Meteor sat, not having moved an inch since it’s initial impact even though it felt like it had travelled so far through the day. The sand below it began to cool as the Sun dipped below the dunes and the stars shone high in the sky. The desert animals, largely hidden from heat during daylight, began moving about, their motions barely perceptible as sound. The Meteor looked out over all that lay before it and felt connected in a way that it never had to anything else before. Everything surrounding it was beautiful simply for being what it was, exactly as was the Meteor itself.
“This is not so bad,” thought the Meteor. “I am intact and this view is pleasant. I am connected to this earth through the elements running within us both. My old friends Sun and Moon soar above me for visits. I have made new friends already.
Maybe tomorrow I will even get another visitor.”
2020