Eclipse 2017
Occasionally, Mother Nature will remind us that life on earth is truly beautiful. Sometimes in the small ways--a delicate butterfly, a beautiful morning. Sometimes in larger ways--red oak forests in California, massive mountains in Colorado.
But Monday, we received a huge dose of Mother Nature--temporarily putting a portion of the country into darkness. It takes an eclipse to put everything into perspective: we are, after all, small humans inhabiting this same planet, all in this together.
My son was excited for months about the eclipse--he wasn’t just jumping on the bandwagon. For months he’s been looking forward to the eclipse, bugging us to get glasses. Not only the standard pairs, but the NASA approved best-quality glasses on the market. Oh vey. But we were happy at his excitement, and sat down to buy the glasses together. Little did we know, the glasses sold out within the evening! Convenience stores, local shops, and Amazon were selling them like hotcakes. Everywhere we called was sold out.
Of course my son was bummed for a bit--we researched and looked into other ways to get some glasses, possible stores that might be carrying them. I knew that I couldn’t just give up or give in--there had to be some way to enjoy and watch the eclipse together. I knew that if I focused on watching the eclipse with my son, and enjoying it together, glasses will, in some way, fall into our laps.
A couple nights before the eclipse, we stumbled upon an article on making your own viewing devices. I was surprised at what we had to use--an empty cereal box, aluminum foil, tape, scissors, and a toothpick. Piece of cake! To think that all the materials we needed surrounded us the entire time--we just needed to put them together.
So my son and I sat down, got out our scissors and got to work making these pinhole cameras. And let me tell you, they truly worked!
But that wasn’t the only thing that happened. The night before the eclipse, I got a message from a friend. “Are you two interested in watching the eclipse with us?” she asked, “We have a pair of glasses to share.”
It’s crazy how you can simply put your intention out into the universe, concentrate on what you want, and boom--it literally falls into your lap.
The four of us set out the next morning--cereal box viewers and eclipse glasses in tow. The last total eclipse happened in the US in the seventies--almost forty years. It’s crazy how this literal once-in-a-lifetime occurrence was passing before our eyes, the sun falling behind the shadow of the moon.
Some astrology gurus might say the eclipse represents an ending, a new beginning, or some might think it represents a shadow passing over before coming back to light. But however we look at it, it reminds us that we are constantly subject to Mother Nature’s awe. The earth and stars are full of amazing things--constantly happening around us. Sometimes it’s a national, top-news story like an eclipse, sometimes, the beautiful things could be happening in our own backyards. We just have to occasionally stop, look, and listen.
I hope you guys enjoyed the eclipse as much as we did. Let me know any of your eclipse stories!
SJW