A lesson from the 2017 Solar Eclipse.

The great American eclipse of 2017 was a bit anti-climactic for me. First it was a partial eclipse in Florida. Second all the hub-bub and money grabbing activities just makes me want to stay away. Third I have this love-hate medical thing with the big ball of pain. And finally I have already seen as close to a total eclipse as I’d ever see. So been there, did that. Built the pin-hole projector years ago and went home.

For South Florida the 2017 eclipse was somewhere around 80% depending on which astronomer was talking. In 1970 an eclipse came across Mexico and North Florida. So us kids, I was like 8 at the time, got to see the eclipse at probably 95 to 99%. It was cool.

My dad brought his welder’s helmet to the school and us kids got to watch the moon cast it’s shadow on the sun until there was a black dot with a ring of fire around it. Dad was the kid’s hero that day. I’ve also been able to view a few partial eclipses through his helmet.

Well I was curious how dark it would get, so I made my way downstairs to meet up with my coworkers. I borrowed a friend’s glasses looked at the sun. Yep. A little tiny orange crescent sun was way up in the sky. Looked kind of like the sun in Dad’s helmet, before the moon lined up, so many years ago.

Then another colleague told me I had to see the shadows on the sidewalk. The trees are casting the sun on the sidewalk like a pinhole projector. What? Okay I’m always game, even if I might look like a fool looking at the ground instead of the sky during a solar eclipse but, what the hay?

I walk over to where he pointed and wow! Dozens of crescent suns dotting the path. Of course I took pictures. Because Hey! I have a phone and why not! The palm trees had refracted the sunlight through the palm fronds scattering a fleeting mosaic of the crescent suns over the canvas of a simple sidewalk. The shadow creature in the picture above is God’s play of light showing us the beauty in a solar eclipse without burning my retinas or giving me a headache.

Sometimes you gotta look down to see what’s up!

This got me thinking about looking around my world to what God shows and blesses us with if we just open our eyes. If I just breathe, relax, and seek. I find the wonders of God around me. By practicing looking up down and around, I was blessed to find a Mockingbird feather and a crescent moon in brewing storm clouds.

I came across two passages in God Calling edited by A.J. Russell:

August 23: “…If in climbing a mountain you keep your eyes on each stony or difficult place, as you ascend, seeing only that, how weary and profitless your climb!…”

Kind of like me completing a task to just check off the list huh? (Death of a Career)

“…But if you think of each step as leading to the summit of achievement, from which glories and beauties will open out before you, then your climb will be so different.”

August 24: “Sublime Heights…Know that with Me all things are possible. Cling joyfully to that truth…The truth accepted and firmly believed in, is the ladder up which a soul can climb from the lowest pits to the sublimest of heights.”

Now that I took the time to rest, I now see it is time to climb again. This time with my eyes open to God’s direction, blessings, glory, and beauty.

Please open your eyes with me. Let’s enjoy. God Bless,

Milly

P.S: My favorite eclipse pics of 2017: