"STAR BRIGHT, STAR LIGHT..."

When is the last time you looked up at the stars in the sky?

Checking the stars, finding the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper used to be a huge part of my nightly ritual.

Sending prayerful wishes to the stars--wow, that was important when I was much, much younger. Each and every night I'd ask the stars to help me achieve what I wanted, which was to be a famous, marvelously memorable dancer.

Well, I more or less got what I prayed for--a very first tour, then a transcontinental tour...hey, I toured Israel, and Asia and England, danced with Symphony Orchestras as soloist, and performed with a dance company that I created and directed and supervised.

Sending more prayers to the stars was no longer necessary--golly, I was too busy choreographing, directing, and booking performances. And then, well....Having fallen in love, making a home, being a wife, a mother, and maybe becoming a marvelous, maybe bestseller writer was on my mind night and day.

And nowadays, well, there are so many other things to pray for that have to do with the people I love, and things that are happening in the world. And since we live in New York City, even when I'm on the roof, I don't see stars--just the fantastic glow of lights from thousands of places near our home. Gee, what would I'd say--"Twinkle twinkle little star--how I wonder where you are?"

I've stopped hoping and dreaming and wishing for things, though I hope I'll find a store where I can pick out a pair of shoes to wear other than my sneakers that I pinch my little toes.

Actually, I'm back to praying, trying to communicate with as many other people I can find, who will read what writer Em, a not famous, but quite marvelously varied, occasionally passionately articulate, pleasantly busy blogger has to say, about big and little things in today's world.