Starlight on the Rooftop
One particularly sweltering summer night, my husband, apparently dissatisfied with the breeze from the electric fan, suggested that we go up to the rooftop and lie down for a while. I was just drifting off to sleep and felt too drowsy to move, so I stayed where I was and tried to fall asleep. Then it occurred to me that perhaps my husband had something he wanted to say. I got up and gathered a pillow and a light blanket. My husband, who had already gone upstairs, sent me a text urging me to hurry.
When I reached the rooftop, he was spreading a mat on the ground. As I lay there, a cool breeze washed over me, soothing me from head to toe. Then my husband remarked casually,
“Look at the stars. Didn’t you say you wanted to see them?”
I remembered something I had once said to him in passing. I had told him that I could gaze at the stars to my heart’s content at my mother’s house, but that I could not go there because the house stood empty. Though I had long since forgotten those words, my husband had quietly kept them in his heart. The sky above us was studded with stars that sparkled like jewels. Together with the cool breeze and the chorus of insects in the grass, it felt as though I had arrived in heaven.
I was deeply grateful to my husband for holding on to such a seemingly insignificant remark and understanding the feelings behind it. It occurred to me that loving and caring for one’s family is not so difficult. All it takes is a little thoughtfulness—the simple act of listening attentively to what the other person says.
