Such love does
the sky now pour,
that whenever I stand in a field,

I have to wring out the light
when I get
home.

St. Francis

Lights were falling from the sky in Shanghai. I was walking the Bund, or the long stone walkway along the river, and I spotted many red lights in the sky. Andy thought China was having some kind of air traffic control problem. I stood arm in arm with Maddy, one of the children from the ship, as my mouth hung open trying to figure out what the heck was going on. Something in me felt excited. A Chinese man came running over with a red paper circle covered in. Pointing at it, and then to the sky, furiously he asked, "Would you like one?

Oh my God, they are lights. THEY ARE LIGHTS FLYING THROUGH THE DARKNESS. Those of you who know me, know I could just about pee my pants over this discovery. I sat there while throngs of people began to surround us trying to sell us everything from paper lanterns to small colorful plastic tigers that moved around when you pressed a button (it is the year of the tiger in the Chinese new year that is being celebrated right now!) . The group I was with scurried us along, but I watched those lights the entire cab ride back to the ship. I stood out on the deck every night and watched these little lights rise.





So, after we arrived on the ship, I needed to work a bit during disembarkation. And when I returned to our room to shower my dirty body and lay my head down to sleep, I found this on my bed.



A red paper lantern. Believe it or not, Andy headed up to the 7th deck before our departure and a big red lantern was sitting there, right on deck 7. It landed on our ship. I must have asked Andy five million times if he was kidding. He wasn't. He found a red paper lantern on our ship and put it on our bed for me. God is funny; leaving little lanterns for me along the way. Reminding me that there is always light. No matter what. And this time, it was actually one I could touch.