Solar Eclipse

Like so many people, I too stared at the sun for a couple of hours, to watch it turn from a ball of fire into a thin crescent of light. We were not in the total eclipse zone and because of that, sunlight shone through the entire time. I could only see the moon’s shadow through special glasses, but the day did turn darker and colder in the process.

Total solar eclipses are not rare occurrences, if you are willing to chase them around the globe, but if you’re staying put, you aren’t likely to experience too many of them in a lifetime. That made it worth wasting a couple of hours, and so I did.

Maybe this celestial event seemed over-hyped to people, but every other living think paid it its undivided attention.

At the peak of the eclipse everything turned unnaturally still. There was no rustling in the leaves, no scurrying on the ground, no sound in the air. Not even the wind.

I experienced my little world grow very quiet as the light dimmed and the air cooled, and because I didn’t know to expect this phenomenon, I paid attention to all its little details.

It is hard to describe the natural cues all around us that are so obvious to wildlife, the subtle changes that tighten your muscles, quicken your breath and give you goosebumps, but they all conveyed an undeniable, though silent behest: be very very still.

People would argue that the advances of civilization made these gut reactions obsolete, that one doesn’t need to rely on instinct when there are so many ways to measure and predict natural events, but I can’t help be humbled by the fact that birds and squirrels know better than me when it comes to keeping themselves out of danger.