wednesday words, wonderings, and wanderings

Q: When was the last time you were in awe of something? Or maybe experienced wonder?

A: For me it was April 8, 2024. 

The date of the highly anticipated solar eclipse and Dayton, Ohio, was in the path of totality. It had been cloudy all weekend. Shortly after midnight, on Monday the skies opened up and it  poured. What a disappointment to have cloud cover for this highly anticipated evert. At 7:00 a.m., the clouds departed and a gentle sunrise greeted the day. No red sky in the morning. Would the weather gods smile upon the region with clear or fairly clear skies? People flocked to the Miami Valley and soon crowds all around Dayton (and nationwide) would gaze skyward to watch the moon crawl its way across the sun. Some traveled hundreds of miles, others merely stepped outside for the event. 

During the eclipse, I was weeding the front garden and would periodically stop, put my eclipse glasses on, and watch the moon slowly cover the sun. T had been on a phone call and the when he walked over to inspect my weeding, I said, "Put your glasses on! The moon has made its way halfway across the sun." He did and he was amazed. He went back into the house and returned with a glass of Scotch for him and a bourbon for me. I told him it looked like an eclipse in a cup.

As the sun's light briefly dimmed, the birds' songs became quieter and quieter, our light-sensored house lights came on, a chill fell through the air, and twilight filled the sky 360°. When the last tiny corner of sunlight disappeared, cheers from the neighbors erupted, I could hear the excited "You can't see the sun, you can't see the sun!" Then to top it off Jupiter and Venus emerged briefly in the afternoon sky. There are not enough words to adequately describe what I saw and felt.

Artificial intelligence and high technology may be the story of the decade, but Mother Nature reminded us that she can stop us in our tracks with a show of her own.

Life is full of awe and grace and truth, mystery and wonder. I live in that atmosphere. ~ Dion DiMucci

A little P.S....this is the first time that I can remember in our current times that people just CAME TOGETHER. Such a minor, blip in our modern contentious society but it gives me hope.