today we watched the sun set on the longest day of the year at the radio tower down from la sal peak. we stared down the immolation of the horizon and cracked dry kindling jokes, bright staccato laughs snapping in the atmosphere among the steady ignition of the clouds.

we’re sitting in the resulting ashen dark of a full day, critiquing each other’s log placement on our sophomoric bonfire; we’re um-actuallying any attempt to identify constellations, and then we’re losing ourselves and our conversations to astronomy lulls, necks tilted back and breathing subalpine air and quieting solemnly to make room for the percussive and seminarial chatter of the fire.

today i was at church, devotional to new and old friendships, kneeling at altars of columbines and shrub oak, praying in silence to a thousand stars in the deepest night south utah has to offer. in days like this, how could anyone not believe in god?