Total Eclipse

Today the moon did what it always does every day, rotate around the earth in it's habitual unsurprising orbit.  A dead rock tethered to a cosmic gravitational leash.    It had no idea that today would be different..... very different.  The sun didn't have anything special planned either.   It was going to do what it did everyday, blast us with light, heat and a bunch of UV rays.

Today their paths would cross seemingly randomly, just by chance the moon would pass for just a few minutes directly in front of the sun.  The affect would be dramatic and capture the imagination of millions, and yet each wouldn't know about the other, neither would care.

It was so cool to see the light of the practically noon day sun soften so suddenly yet slowly all at the same time, such sublety.  It was as if a camera filter had been placed over all the earth, or over all our eyes.   Then the air slowly got cooler, the temperature dropped as if someone literally clicked down on the thermostat 10 degrees.  It was like being in a real life sci fi movie for a few minutes.  So odd, so cool and so captivating.  We were there, for just those few minutes, and then the light normalized, the heat came back and we went on our way......the moment had passed, and we were all that we were before.  But we were all part of something special for that moment.

Most of our lives is about people crossing our paths, and us theirs....  Most of the time they are like partial eclipses, then once in a while, we experience a total eclipse.  These are different.  These cast a different light on things.  The temperature changes in that we feel different, we see things in a different light......as if seeing things for the first time.  They can be cosmic, they definitely capture our imagination.  We find ourselves dreaming for a few minutes like we all did today watching that eclipse in the sky......wondering what could be.....lost in our view heavenward.

Maybe you have had a few total eclipse moments in your life.... I have.  They tend to mark us with more permanent ink than the normal day to day crossings.  They always seem so random, but when looking back, they aren't are they?   Something orchestrated the timing, the sequence, the time, so perfectly.  Can it really be so random when it comes to you and me.... Really?  It was just coincidental that you and I met the way we did?  Accidental?  I don't think so..... We felt the connection, we were drawn to each other.....cosmic no?  I would like to think it wasn't something, but rather someone who knew cosmic math so well that the algorithm of our particular total eclipse was perfectly designed for you and I to know each other.... so we could love each other better.  Here is to all the total eclipses that have brought all of you to my life.  I am the better for it.

If this is what calculus was all about, then I get it now.....I guess I am ok with learning math in Heaven after all....