Wednesday morning, reports started coming over the phone of the strong earthquake that damaged central Italy. We've all seen the horror Mother Nature recently released down south in the form of massive flooding.

And here I was, for the last week or two, trying to figure out how I could carry off an editorial that didn't sound superficial just because it was a lament of the nights of cloud cover that blocked my view of this year's Perseid meteor showers.

I really like them, and anything up in the sky, except lightning because it's a hazard.

There's something reassuring about a blanket of stars. It's grounding, like a rainbow, a sunset, or a perfect blue sky, so much bigger than we are, and joining us all together under it.

Yes, I wish upon a shooting star any chance I get, even though it's not a star at all. Like those few other things people have no hand in, no control over, its simple beauty, and the surprise at the moment it appears, can teach us so much about what just, is. That’s perspective.

The region's need for drought relief far surpassed my need to reconnect with the universe, so I have no business fussing about the storms coinciding with the meteor showers. We can all take heart that the rain has come. And maybe the timing will be better next year.