April 10, 2024
The solar eclipse of April
2024 has come and gone, and what a show it was!
So, as it turns out, we
weren’t actually on the path of totality after all. I would have known that for
certain, if I had been able to find a map online that allowed me to telescope
down, to see the towns and villages that were on that path. Of course, I never
managed to do that little thing. But while we didn’t get the absolute total
full on black of midnight at a few minutes past 3 in the afternoon this past
Monday, it did get dark enough here at that point to make the streetlights come
on. It was about as dark as is in that moment of dusk, just before it becomes
impossible to see your hand in front of your face. That point when, being
outside, you realize it’s time to go in, because it’s getting difficult to see.
And that was certainly something to experience.
How close were we? We were
right next door to totality. There was just the tiniest little sliver of sun
left at the top right hand corner(as seen through our glasses). And the most amazing part of it all was that
we had only to go out our front door, walk down our porch stairs and then walk a
few more steps to the north—to the intersection (we have a corner property)—and
look up.
Well, we didn’t just do
that. I brought my walker, and David brought the cane he has with a seat on it,
and so we were able to sit and look up. It’s sad but true that neither of us
can stand for more than a few minutes at a time anymore.
Seeing the eclipse, watching
the progress of the moon as it moved along it’s orbital path, was an awesome
experience. One that was all the better because the cloud cover that we had
been under completely cleared just before the moon began to cover the sun. Yes,
we had full on blue skies, with only a tiny wisp of cloud! And also, because it was on a Monday, it was
out daughter’s day off, and so she shared the experience with us.
We’d known that there was
going to be an eclipse for more than a year, but that doesn’t mean that we
actually made a plan of action. I think it was only a few weeks ago, when the
hype began to build for the event on Monday, that we really understood how
lucky we were, how close we were to being able to see the entire thing without
leaving home. Then, just this past Friday, it occurred to me that if we were
going to watch a solar eclipse, we needed to have some of those special glasses
to do that.
Thank goodness for Amazon.
One of the things that
impressed all three of us was the demonstration we received of the awesome
power of our sun. As we sat and watched the celestial show, as the moon’s path
progressed, it took a long time for the “daylight” to dim. With the sun half
hidden, how bright the day still was! It wasn’t until there was less than a
quarter of the sun visible that the light began to weaken. At the height of
what we witnessed—when only but a sliver of the sun was visible—we could still
make out each other and the shapes of the neighbourhood around us.
And yet, how completely rare it
was to have deep dusk in the afternoon!
We’re a fairly close-knit
family, yet in those minutes as we watched the eclipse together, we became
closer. And that was something I noticed as I viewed the news coverage of the
event that evening. The crowds that gathered together—whether in Mexico, the
United States, or Canada were, for those few precious moments out of time,
united together in awe. The emotions displayed were shared emotions. Most
people watching felt humbled. Some were brought to tears; some felt palpable
joy.
For those few moments out of
time, we were a people united.
We humans need more moments
like that in our lives, moments when we can feel the ties that bind us all. Moments
when we can appreciate that we are a part of something awesome, something much
larger than our puny selves.
We have one planet, and one
moon and one sun—and they belong, equally, to us all.
Love,
Morgan
https://www.bookstrand.com/morgan-ashbury
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