Sky Ablaze with Stars

During genealogy study I read: 
1833 year of the falling stars 

I look it up ...13 Nov 1833:

“From two o'clock until broad daylight, the sky being perfectly serene and cloudless, an incessant play of dazzlingly brilliant luminosities was kept up in the whole heavens."



It was so bright that a newspaper could be read on the street. 

One writer says, "For nearly four hours the sky was literally ablaze."


Mystical Wisp mixed-media by Lura Astor

purple spiders

In a swimming pool an 11 year old girl asked, "What are all those purple lines on your legs?"

Well, I thought, a map of my years on earth. Considering ...

 ... the number of leaps and landings, jumps and choreographed tumbles during 30+ years of dance/performances.

But it was hopping within one square foot of stage, over and over, while the other leg, a la seconde en l'air at waist height, then burst! a round of twirling jetes circling the stage in half backbends ...

... yes, it was that first jete out of the centripetal motion and I could feel my capillaries as the foot landed on earth and spiders of electricity crawled up my leg.

Kinda like that, these maps of our lives, etched on skin and membrane.

Kinda like that, kid.

art: The Gift lastor