I live in Virginia's Piedmont, in a region of rolling hills about 150 miles from the coast. According to maps provided by Orbital Sciences regarding its launches of Antares rockets from Wallops Island on Virginia's Eastern Shore, I'm in an area where the ascending rocket should be visible approximately three minutes after liftoff.

Even if the entrance to heaven exists in an unimaginably distant location, the Hubble Space Telescope would certainly have photographed it by now. Well, perhaps not.

The autumnal equinox provides a moment for reflecting on the nature of change and our individual responses to seasonal transformations.