Total Eclipse Fever

The countdown has been on for weeks, if not months, in my part of the world. In truth, we have been patiently waiting for this day for the past 38 years, to be exact. Today was the total solar eclipse that spanned the entire continental United States of America, which is why today's event was so special. In other words, no matter what part of the country you are in, you would likely have had some view of the eclipse.  For me, I am fortunate enough to live in Nashville, the largest city in the path of totality for this solar eclipse.  What a happy coincidence, let me tell you!

Here's a look at the eclipse in Nashville, as captured by my friend, Max Garner, of Hill Valley Photography.

So I didn't have to drive for many many miles to see totality, as so many people did. Or even leave my own backyard for that matter, though you could take your pick of watch parties and events in this area.  I did in fact view the total eclipse this afternoon from my own back deck and it was every bit as spectacular as I could have ever imagined.   Armed with my eclipse glasses, I scoped out the best viewing area from my backyard earlier today. The partial eclipse began shortly after noon, with totality occurring just before 1:30 pm.  And then almost as quickly as totality occurred, within a couple of minutes, the moon started to pull to the other side of the sun and a crescent of sunlight began to appear once again.

For some reason, I just thought that the eclipse would be so much darker.  But what I discovered was that even in totality, the sun is still high high in the sky between 12 and 1 o'clock in the afternoon, and even the tiniest sliver of sunlight poking out just before going completely dark and just after provides plenty of light outside still. In fact I took a short video from my viewing location about five minutes before the complete solar eclipse, and as you can see there was still tons of light in our backyard. However I'm sure many of you also noticed the wonderful crescent shaped slivers of light that filter down from the trees. You can see them in my video below. I also took lots of pictures. So fascinating!

In addition, when the totality of the eclipse occurred here, the crickets and cicadas started chirping out of nowhere like it was suddenly night time. And as soon as the sun started to peek back out minutes after the total eclipse, birds started chirping like the sun was coming up for the first time all day.  Oh Heavenly Father, we all bow down.

As it turns out, solar eclipses are actually not all that rare. Generally speaking, there are typically at least two solar eclipses that occur somewhere on our planet each year.   Oftentimes, they occur over the vast oceans, just creating shadows in the middle of the water that very few actually see.   In fact the next solar eclipse that the United States will see is scheduled to occur in just seven years, in 2024. However that eclipse will travel from north to south over a small swath of the country, unlike the eclipse that we experienced today.

It occurred to me today that this entire nation came together to witness a special and wonderful occurrence.   Peaceful. Beautiful. Awe-inspiring. And in this day of unity, there is very little focus, in my world at least, on the negative, on the things that separate and divide us. For a few moments, there was only focus on this perfectly spectacular gift from Heaven above.  Let's all try to have more days like this. What do you say?