The Total Eclipse of the Sun
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I’ve been looking for language for what I experienced during the eclipse, and so I decided to wait on my Wednesday post until the words arrived…. So here is my Wednesday post on Thursday :-)
This past Monday Bloomington Indiana was in the path of the total eclipse of the sun. Interestingly, Bloomington was also on the path of the eclipse in 2017. I’d experienced 97% eclipse that day and it was a very powerful event, but I did not expect how different it would be to experience the totality.
On the morning of the eclipse we drove out to a friend’s goat farm that had a wonderfully open view of the sky, surrounded by hills and farms. Another friend did a beautiful yoga session with the goats, gently encouraging us to breathe and let go of what might be weighting upon our minds. Yup, yoga with little goats…. who by the way were infinitely curious and would occasionally nuzzle someone while in downward dog or lean into someone who was sitting in meditation. We then had a vegan potluck while hawks circled and an occasional heron winged across the sky. My daughter, Amelia, and her husband, Ben, had traveled from Chicago and his parents had also come in from Pennsylvania. It was a joyous and trembling time as we waited for the hour and moment to arrive. Ben is a librarian and writer, but also a wonderful photographer and he’d set up a tripod with a camera equipped with a special lens. I’m posting several of his photos here.
When the eclipse started we all settled into chairs or stood out in the field. The light and air began to shift subtly, but as the eclipse proceeded the changes began to happen more quickly . The temperature dropped precipitously and several people needed to grab a jacket or sweater. Then the wind came up dramatically blowing across the new grasses in that springtime field. The colors began to glow and the birds began to quiet until finally there was only the barest sliver of the sun showing. Then in a moment —we were in full totality.
What hit me immediately was that I had no reference point for the light around me. We know in our minds and in our bodies what morning light is, how it feels, what time of year. We know when we walk outside that it is twilight or that the sun must be slipping below the horizon. Our hearts and minds have filed away so many kinds of light and something inside us says, ”Oh, this is evening in winter, or morning in summer”. But my mind or body had absolutely no reference point for this kind of light. As the cold increased and the winds came up further, we were surrounded by an impossibly unfamiliar light. The world had dimmed but this was neither twilight or dawn. This was something completely rarified. Some of the the nighttime creatures awoke, a few white night moths lifted from the grasses. A friend of mine told me later that at the moment the moon completely obscured the sun, the little spring peeper frogs began to sing in her nearby pond. Another friend told me that during totality, several Barred Owls began their nighttime calling.
In that field in South Central Indiana, all I could do was stand in wonder as that impossible light illuminated our uplifted faces. I hugged my daughter and we both held hands, with tears in our eyes. It felt like I was having a completely new experience with our closest star, our own life-giving sun. A window into how deeply humans, the winds, the oceans and all living things are affected by the the mysterious quality of light. I cannot help but hope that something about experiencing the wonder of this event was a reminder of our place in the cosmos, and that in moments of awe and wonder we are ever and always connected.
Question
Did you experience the totality in your part of the country or world? What was it like for you?
I have always been fascinated by light, and have many songs that the mystery of light plays an important part. One of my favorite older albums from my back catalogue is called “The Geography of Light”. Here’s a link to a video of a song called “Where The Light Comes Down.”
NASA Resources
Since monday, I’ve enjoyed looking at some of the NASA videos, showing how people experienced the totality in several parts of the United States. Here is a link for the main NASA video. If you start the video at 1:40 you can see totality starting in Texas all the way through Maine.
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I'd like to share with you this poem I wrote right after the eclipse ended. There was a moment as the moon started to pass by the sun that the sun was half covered in shadow, half in light. The sun looked like the symbol for yin and yang. After the eclipse was over and the light returned to its usual mid-day brightness, everything seemed as it was before, only oddly different. Perhaps it was me who had changed. Here is the poem. I hope you enjoy it and that it brings back memories of your eclipse experience.
At the End of The Eclipse
Judith Valente
After the sky became a watery blue again,
the wind grew gentler and the birds
began chanting once more
the sun and moon became the halved symbol
for yin and yang: the sun’s amber half the yin
the moon’s dark half the yang.
Perhaps this was what they were trying
to tell us all along, that this is it:
light and shadow; loss and love,
music and noise, reason and wildness.
Two sulfur butterflies pedal the air,
purple squill, yellow dandelion flowers
spring up between fresh blades of grass,
buds green on the still mostly bare tree boughs.
Everything is as it was before, only changed.
Here in my home town in southern Ontario Canada, I experienced 99%. I almost thought we would miss it as it had been overcast all day but oddly it seemed like the clouds parted just before the eclipse. The first ray of sunshine I saw, I headed outside with my glasses to get a view if I could and it was more amazing than I could have ever imagined!! I messaged one of my neighbours to come out, she said she didn’t have the special glasses, have no fear she could borrow mine. Shortly afterwards more of my neighbours came out but none had the glasses, I shard mine around, giving everyone an opportunity to experience what we will never experience again in our lifetime. I loved seeing the expressions when each looked through the glasses, moments of jaw dropping awe and wonder. At 99% it left just a tiny sliver of the sun but I still experienced the same feelings as you did Carrie when it got darker, the sudden drop in temperature ( good thing I had my sweater jacket on!), everything went still. The birds stopped singing, streetlights came on, crickets started chirping. It was like time outside of time for those brief few minutes. There were areas around me (an hour and a half drive) that had 100% totality, but I wasn’t about to fight traffic, thousands of people or even book a hotel at $1000 a night price tag. I wish I could have shared those moments with my sweetheart but unfortunately he was at work and my daughter was away at school. I’m glad I chose to stay put and share it with my neighbours . A piece of history we all shared together no matter what side of the border we are on!