It happened when I was in elementary school:
One fine week in August, there was a news report. It was about an upcoming shooting star shower in the skies above us. Forecasts said it would happen next week. Around 5 am in the morning.
If we could wake up early enough, we could see a spectacular sight that only happened once every… fifty years I think?
Anyway:
Our school was in an uproar.
All my friends were talking about it. And we’d spend long hours chatting about how amazing it would be. And what wishes we would make. And about how lucky we were to witness such a grand event.
Days passed. The week was over. And finally the skies would be aglow soon.
Tomorrow morning.
That’s when it was gonna happen.
I set my alarm, and looked forward to seeing the shooting star sights.
Unfortunately though, for a young kid (though I should really used the word *kitten instead, because that’s what they call young bunnies these days) trying to wake up at 5 a.m. is like trying to rouse the dead from their graves.
The alarm rang. I hit snooze. And went back to bed…
… before it hit me 30 minutes later that…
… I wasn’t supposed to be sleeping! The event of a lifetime was taking place outside in the sky!
I bounced out of bed.
And sprinted to the door. Sad at the thought that the shower was probably over by now.
But to my pleasant surprise, I managed to catch the tail end of the event. And a couple of shooting stars were still streaking across the sky. They looked like blue balls with short fuzzy tails dancing in front of a dark night.
“Amazing!” I thought to myself.
I didn’t miss it.
I really made it.
And I managed to make my wish…
What did I wish for, you ask?
Ha ha ha. I’m pretty smart. So I made the best wish anyone could wish for:
I wished for a million wishes!
But sad thing, I think my wish wasn’t granted. Because even now when I try to wish for more cash so I can buy new art supplies, I don’t see money dropping out of the sky in front of me.
Oh well…
Next day I went back to school. Waiting to share the grand experience with my friends.
And looking forward to hearing about what they all wished for.
Guess what?
None of them managed to wake themselves up that early to watch the shower. I was the only one who saw it! :O
“How lucky I am…” I thought to myself.
But then again, it wasn’t just luck was it?
I put in a lot of effort. Hard work. Diligence. And sheer determination. To maintain my rationality in the face of blissful sleep and a soft bed that was waiting for me. I pushed myself to my limits and got out of bed.
And that’s why… I witnessed it!
Event of a lifetime! Yeah!
Sometimes in life we spend so much time wishin’, wantin’ and waitin’ for things to happen.
When the truth of the matter is…
… our wishes are just within our reach… they’re right in front of us… but they’re waitin’ for us to put in that last bit of effort we need to get them.
Just like those shooting stars were just waiting for me to get out of bed to make my wish.
It’s tough work.
But all worth it in the end when you finally get everything you wished for.
I was reminded of this story (and what I learned from it) a couple of days ago.
I suddenly got an Etsy message from a fan named Maggie.
She owns a farm called Shooting Stars Farm. She loves my work. And was wondering whether I had any wreath illustrations with Shooting Star Flowers.
She sent me a photo of those flowers.
And I’d never heard of them before.
But I was amazed at how uniquely beautiful they looked. They really look like shooting stars, with tails of purple following behind them as they streak through the night sky.
So I decided to make a Shooting Star Flower Wreath.
And add it to my store.
Because I love how lovely they are.
And I thought to myself that… with how uncommon these flowers are… and how uniquely beautiful they look… I’m sure a lot of my fans would enjoy using them to make their own designs and projects stand out from the crowd.
After all:
Most crafting projects these days are focused on the same ol’ flowers again and again.
Roses.
Peonies.
Sunflowers.
There’s even a popular quote these days which says:
“In a world full of roses, be a sunflower.”
Well…
I’m sorry to say it but, the world is just FULL of sunflowers right now! Just looking at how much my uniquely illustrated sunflower wreaths are being swiped and copied by art thieves and hustlers left and right makes me well aware of that fact. Sunflowers are everywhere right now.
I think it’s time for a new quote.
“In a world full of sunflowers, be a shooting star flower.”
Sincerely,
Aurelia Nobleia
“Wishin’ but still wantin'”
P.S. I can just imagine someone using this Shooting Star Flower wreath and engraving it on a birthday gift.
And when the gift gets opened, they tell the birthday girl:
“You know what this flower is called? A shooting star flower. You know you can make one wish on it? Just like a real shooting star? So this birthday… you got two wishes! One from blowing out candles. And one from my gift. You’re welcome.”
LOL. That would be awesome…
