Signs: A Single Shooting Star

I was headed home, late, thinking about the full, but very good day. In school, one of my students jumped "two levels" indicating he is starting to read texts with more than one line of print per page!  My mother is finally taking/responding to her medicine and is "back."  I was infused with "hugs and kisses" after an evening with nieces.  In my head, I was planning the remaining hour of the day before heading to bed.  Then, straight ahead, out over the water, a single shooting star moved at lightning speed across the sky.

(picture from Google images) 

At first, I was not sure what I had witnessed.  Was I dreaming?  Had I fallen asleep at the wheel?  No, the truth was, sure as could be, I had seen a shooting star descend from the heavens and sweep across the darkened winter sky above the reservoir.

I've written about signs before (about a year ago).  Tonight's sign took my breath away.  It was the first time I had ever seen this sight.  Yet, I've read enough stories about them to know I had just a few minutes to decide on a wish.  

The brief battle that ensued inside my head was intense.  How do you choose the one thing you need/want the most? Do I make a wish for the world, such as for resolution of the racial/cultural strains that permeate the news?  Do I think "smaller" and wish for health for family/friends?  Relief from financial strains? Happiness for those I love? Peaceful settlements to one of many disputes?  Diet successes? A book to be published?  Jobs for those I care about?

I think my heart was pounding.  My mind raced to the tale told long ago by the Brothers Grimm about about the fisherman and his greedy wife http://germanstories.vcu.edu/grimm/fischer_e.html.  What if I were greedy?  What if I wasted my wish? It might be a long, long time before I ever saw such as sight again.  In fact, this opportunity might never come by my way again!  I had to make my "wish" the right one!  It seemed like minutes; yet I suspect it was merely moments when my thoughts crystallized and I verbalized to the dark December sky a prayer of gratitude mixed with a single wish!

As I headed home, I sighed, audibly, thinking about how HARD it was to make a single wish when there is SO much at stake.