Have you ever spent an evening stargazing in the country? I mean really stargazing. Not just glancing up at the night sky before going back inside the house to watch another reality show on TV.

Stargazing in the country on a dark, clear night, puts everything into perspective. I'd be willing to bet that most people living in the city have never taken time to stargaze. Not that they could see much if they tried. City lights block out the majority of stars, and people are unable to see the life and wonders that lie beyond the light pollution.

City people need to head to the countryside in order to experience the night sky unhindered by city lights. This has become very evident to me since we moved back to the country near Westby.

Here in the country, we can look up and have the experience of seeing the night sky filled with stars, literally billions and billions of them.

I don't care how old you are, you need to stargaze at least once in your life. And while you're at it, give some thought to the immensity of the universe you're looking at. Ask questions and search for answers.

When I was young, my cousin, Sandy, and I loved to lie down in a field or on the lawn and look at the stars. She was three years older than me and spent each summer with us on the farm. The two of us often watched the clouds and sunsets together. We both had inquisitive minds and lots of questions. We were always trying to figure out the answers to life's unanswerable questions. This was especially true while stargazing.

We'd go out in a hayfield or pasture where there were no other objects or trees around and lie down in a spot where we couldn't see the surrounding horizons when we looked straight up at the sky. That way it seemed like we were floating in space. All we could see were the stars. Then the questions would begin.

We had lots of questions, but not many answers. Today we know a lot more about the universe than when we were looking at it back in the 1940s and 50s.

Less than 100 years ago, astronomers believed the Milky Way was all there was to our universe. But in the mid-1920s, the famous astronomer Edwin Hubble and his staff showed that other galaxies exist beyond the Milky Way. Astronomers now believe there are 100 billion galaxies in the observable universe, with ten million to one trillion stars in each of those galaxies. Most of those stars have planets orbiting around them. The number of planets in the universe is staggering. If only a small percent of one percent of those planets has the conditions to support life, it would number in the millions of planets. To think we're the only planet in the universe with some type of life, is rather egotistical.

To give you an idea of the immensity of the universe, the Andromeda Galaxy is a next-door neighbor to our Milky Way, only 2.5 million light years away! In the late 1960s and early '70s, the Apollo spacecraft traveled to the moon and made the trip in about three days. At the rate Apollo traveled, it would take around 450 billion years for it to reach the Andromeda Galaxy! Uff da. I think of all those things when I stargaze.

The last time I visited with Sandy at their home in Frisco, Colorado, she knew she was dying of cancer. We talked about many things, including those days when we watched sunsets and the stars together. We decided that we'd try to contact each other after one of us died, and let the other know we were still around and OK.

Last night the sky was clear and full of stars. I told Linda we should go outside and stargaze for a while. We found a spot, settled back, and looked up at the billions of stars lighting the sky. The Milky Way was very visible too. I kept looking for a shooting star.

In our younger days, Sandy and I believed that when we saw a shooting star, it was a sign from a departed Spirit to us. We didn't understand the scientific explanation of meteorites entering the atmosphere and burning up.

As Linda and I looked at the night sky I was reminded of those days and thought of Sandy. I said out loud, "OK Sandy, let's see a sign from you." It couldn't have been more than a couple seconds and a shooting star went from left to right across the sky. A couple seconds later, another one went from right to left in the same part of the sky.

Linda said, "There's your sign."

Those were the only shooting stars we saw. It would be just like Sandy to give a second greeting in case I missed the first one.

Just a coincidence? Maybe. People can find all kinds of explanations for this. My question is... why is it so hard for those who profess to believe in a higher power, to doubt that anything is possible. Maybe at death, the mind (spirit/soul… whatever you want to call the real you) enters another dimension, no longer trapped in the human body. Once it's free, maybe, just maybe, it can even take the form of a shooting star!