Month: October 2019

A Time of Letting Go – Day 353

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A Time of Letting Go

I mentioned yesterday that we’re entering another period of intensity. Part of that has to do with the fact that the sun has moved into Scorpio, which traditionally is associated with death and regeneration. And because we’re human, most of us tighten up over the mere mention of death, so we barely even pay attention to the ‘regeneration’ aspect of Scorpio.

We just get freaked out over the prospect of death.

Not Just the Sun

Reading this you may think to yourself, yeah, but we go through Scorpio every year. Big deal. Why do things feel especially tense and fraught right now?

And I would answer that it’s a function of other aspects that are occurring right now as well. Some of these aspects are other planets dancing (or sparring) with each other in specific signs that result in making it feel as though they’re piling on and making everything worse.

I’ve just spent a bunch of time just now trying to synopsize my understanding of what’s going on astrologically, and I feel like all I’ve been doing is deleting.

Let the Experts Speak

So instead of trying to distill what I’ve read, I’m going to share a couple of links to astrologers I’ve linked to before. Kaypacha is a video you watch, while Chani writes a great analysis. The third link I’m sharing is to Evolving Door, which I believe I discovered through a friend, and found it to be an interesting analysis.

Let’s face it: There’s no denying that most, if not all, of us are experiencing the intensity I mentioned in yesterday’s post. We’re seeing it outside of us and we’re feeling it within ourselves. And the more information we can gather that helps us navigate these turbulent times the better.

Go Deep

With Mercury going retrograde tomorrow for three weeks, I feel it really just underscores the need for all of us to really dig deep and, as Kaypacha says, figure out who we want to be and what we truly want to create in our lives – and let go of that which no longer serves us.

It feels like we’re all being called upon to look deeply within and exercise radical honesty with ourselves.

Talk about a death. It sounds to me like we’re being called to face the death of bullshitting ourselves. What no longer works? What hasn’t been working for a long, long time, but we’ve refused to acknowledge and act on that truth? What have we been telling ourselves we just can’t stop feeling or doing or believing because we’ll die to our own illusions of who we are?

The Cool Thing

What we need to remember is that regeneration will occur. We can and will create a new reality for ourselves if we finally stop trying to hang on to what hasn’t been working and let it go. That’s the cool thing about this whole process. Nothing is static. Change is constantly occurring. The real questions are whether we’re going to stop resisting, choose to be conscious of our lives and our choices, and allow ourselves to jettison the baggage that’s been keeping us from flowing into a new expression of our lives?

Join me. Let’s let it go. Let’s see what happens!

Scorpion – Photo: newatlas.com

(T-758)

Intense Days Ahead – Day 352

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Intense Sunset – Photo: L. Weikel

Intense Days Ahead 

There’s a lot going on in the cosmos right now. Intense ‘aspects’ between planets that, traditionally, are associated with sudden, intense disruptions, rules and norms, and discipline, to name only a few.

Obviously, so much is being played out on the national and world stage.

But I’m also seeing it play out in our day-to-day lives.

Intensity. Change. Disruption.

Dare I say…chaos.

This is a short post. I want to write more on this subject, but now is not the time. Perhaps tomorrow will bear more fruit.

In the meantime, I want to share with you some glimpses of the intensity so many of us are feeling, as reflected in the sunset.

Hang in there. You’re not alone.

Sunset River of Light – Photo: L. Weikel

(T-759)

Munchkin Mushrooms – Day 351

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Tree mushrooms – Photo: L. Weikel

Munchkin Mushrooms      

Just this past Thursday I was sitting on our porch steps working on my laptop. The afternoon sun had reached that magic place where it was blazing directly into my eyes as I sat in my usual spot, so I’d shifted my position.

Still being acutely aware of the return of birds to our feeders, my eyes swept upward when I caught sight of movement along the bark of the tree. I sensed a nuthatch, perhaps?

Whatever it was that caused me to look up in that moment eluded me. However, I was astonished to see the little munchkin mushrooms, above, peaking out at me from the crook of one of our old maples at least 8 feet in the air.

I was entranced. Those mushrooms are adorable – and such beauties!

Four Days Later

What a difference some rainy days make.

Here is a photo of those very same mushrooms only four days later.

Makes me wonder what type of an intricate (or would intimate be a better word?) connection with the tree these little guys have.

I wonder if any birds or squirrels will eat them? Or how large they’ll in fact grow? Guess time will tell.

Munchkin Mushrooms Growing Up – Photo: L. Weikel

(T-760)

Night Sounds – Day 350

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Coyote – Photo: Wikipedia

Night Sounds    

I’m sitting here with our front door open. It’s the 27thof October, and it’s mild enough outside that I have the front door open so the swan songs of the crickets and katydids can filter in unimpeded. They were so comforting tonight that they lulled me into a premature slumber.

I’ve written many times of the joy crickets, katydids, and peepers give me, especially when they make their debut appearance of the season. But the truth is, I never tire of their voices. I love having them be the background soundtrack of my life.

Tonight’s Walk

Karl and I took advantage of the complete transformation of the weather today to take a walk this evening. A vast amount of leaves had been knocked down in the torrential rains that pelted our area this morning. So this evening’s walk in nearly 70 degree temperatures (even though the sun had already set) was all the more remarkable.

We were afforded a magnificent view of the stars, unimpeded by moonlight (since it’s a new moon today!), yet serenaded by the heartiest of crickets and katydids. The survivors of the season, the holdouts, the elders, shared their words of wisdom while we gazed upwards, marveling at the brilliance of the stars, which in a way was more akin to a winter sky in clarity than the summery temperatures would imply.

Which Reminds Me

A couple of evenings this week, we slept with our bedroom windows open. Again, these ‘tween times are my favorite. I love it when there are no mechanical noises disturbing the silence. No air conditioners, no whole house fan (although that is comforting), and no humidifier, the noise we unfortunately endure throughout the winter.

There may be three weeks or so, give or take, in the spring and then again in the fall, when the temperatures drop outside enough to cool the whole house down all by themselves, with just the windows being open. Those are the times when I usually hear the screech owls and Great Horneds. Of course, the neighbors’ two wonderful donkeys, who decide to bellow brays that emanate from the bowels of their beings and (again) sound like the Sand People from the first Star Wars movie (Episode IV).

This past Wednesday and Thursday evenings, though, Karl and I both shot up in bed at the sounds coming in our window. Well, we weren’t quite as spooked the second night, so Thursday’s experience really was just another opportunity to discern the nature of the creatures vocalizing.

Coyotes

Yep, we are almost certain the calls, yips, and just plain weird noises that woke us both nights were coyotes. I’m sure, if anyone from out west is reading this blog, you’re probably rolling your eyes and wondering why I’m making such a big deal over hearing these creatures.

That pack yipping and yowling just is not something people expect to hear in this neck of the woods. And adding a bit more of an interesting twist to the experience (which really was extraordinarily cool to begin with – albeit a bit worrisome with respect to our cat, Cletus, whom we only allow out at night, for the sake of the birds) was the fact that Karl and I each picked Coyote in one form or another (either as main card or as the undercard) within a week or so of having them show up basically in our back yard.

Hmm. Are we being told to lighten up? Embrace our playful, irreverent sides? Or is the message to beware of falling for the old stories and sabotaging ourselves in the process?

As I write this final sentence, I realize that although my front door is open and the only thing separating me from the outside is the screen door, I do not hear one single sound outside. Not a leaf rustling, not a cricket chirping. Utter and total silence. It is deafening.

(T-761)

Short and Sweet… – Day 349

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Pigeon Potato – Photo: L. Weikel

Short and Sweet…

Oh, you probably caught on to my little word play there, right?

Short and sweet…POTATO, that is!

I know. Hilarious. But hey – it’s way later than usual for me to be starting this post, and I really have to go with the flow. And the flow is telling me that tonight is the night for a post about another weirdly shaped vegetable that’s come into my life.

Yes, an anthropomorphic carrot once had a post of its own, so it only seems right that I would feature this very cool sweet potato that very obviously has avian DNA. I originally titled the photos I took of this root vegetable ‘Goose Potato.’ But upon closer inspection, I’m thinking it much more resembles a ‘Pigeon Potato.’ A sweet pigeon potato, to be exact.

Primitive Art or Random Vegetable?

When I pulled the sweet potato out of the bag of vegetables Tiffany shared with us from our local CSA, Plowshares Farm, I knew it was special. Indeed, I took it outside onto our porch so I could look at it in natural sunlight, because the markings on its head make its ‘beak’ and eye quite obvious.

Karl saw me examining it outside on the porch, saw me photographing it, and even asked me where I’d gotten it. “Tiffany,” I replied.

“What? Did she make it or something?” he asked, bewildered. “Where’d she get it?”

I had no idea what he was talking about, and think I may have been a bit snappish in my response. “Plowshares Farm, where she gets all the veggies,” I responded.

The expression on Karl’s face made no sense to me. It was as if something major did not compute. “What?” I asked, pressing him. “It’s a sweet potato!”

“Get out of town!” he laughed. “I thought it was some sort of primitive art or something – or maybe a sculpture you made yourself long ago.”

I looked at the sweet potato pigeon in my hand and smiled. He’d actually mistaken it for a piece of art – which it is, in its own way. But I knew exactly the little sculpture I had from my childhood that caused his confusion. (I’ll see if I can find it and post a photo of it tomorrow.)

“Nope,” I replied. “Just another weird vegetable –“

“For you to write a blog post about!” he interjected, laughing.

Yup.

Pigeon Potato Getting a Drink – Photo: L. Weikel

(T-762)

Climate Change Advocacy & Awareness – Day 348

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Photo: L. Weikel

Climate Change Advocacy & Awareness

Sorry to say it, but I dropped the ball here: I should’ve announced this event at least a week ago, but didn’t.

On the off chance you may be a last minute pick-up-and-go type of person and in the mood for a drive to the Poconos tomorrow, there’s a program being offered that could help you get your climate change advocacy groove on. (Phew – that was a long sentence.)

Three advocacy and educational organizations, Brodhead Watershed Association, PennFuture, and Brodhead Trout Unlimited will be co-hosting “A Day for Environmental Advocacy and Awareness” tomorrow. From 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., three different workshops will be offered at the Brodhead Creek Heritage Center, 1539 Cherry Lane Road, East Stroudsburg.

Advocacy 101

In the first session, from 10:00 to noon, a workshop will be offered on Meeting With Your Legislator. All the little things that cross your mind when you contemplate actually making your position on climate change known to your local, state, or federal representatives will be covered.

It’s one thing to rail against what you know to be true about climate change, feel the pain of reading about its effects on birds and animals (including humans), or experience the anxiety and fear engendered by extremes in weather, an increase in wildfires, and rising sea levels. But it’s a whole other thing to effectively, coherently, and cogently bring those concerns to the attention of those who actually make policy.

A second session, aimed at honing your ability to write an effective ‘letter to the editor’ will take place from 1:30 to 2:30.

During a lunch break between those two sessions, there will be an opportunity to get a close up look at a variety of ‘clean cars’ – from hybrids to electric.

Birds and Climate

The day concludes with a third session, from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m.: a “Birds and Climate” Walk and Talk. This program, which I’m particularly looking forward to attending given my recent angst over the disappearance of the birds from my feeders as noted here, here, and here, will be led by Darryl and Jackie Speicher of the Pocono Avian Research Center. The Speichers will be teaching about how climate change is impacting bird populations, their migration, and of course, their habitats.

Follow the Links

If you’re interested in learning more and are up for a road trip to the Poconos, I urge you to follow the links provided and register for the sessions you wish to attend. It may be late notice to them, but it will give them a heads up that you’re coming.

Give Yourself Plenty of Time

I’ve heard from a local up there that this weekend will probably be prime for ‘leaf peeping,’ thus the roads will be rife with tourists. (Technically, I guess we might qualify?!) All the more reason to attend this event! We all need to do what we can to preserve and protect our amazing earthly environment for generations to come.

Again, my apologies for not sharing this information with you sooner. But if it works out that you can attend, I hope the organizations involved will welcome some last minute attendees.

I don’t know if anyone will answer on such late notice, but there is a phone number for the Brodhead Watershed Association: 570-839-1120 and an email address: info@brodheadwatershed.org.

Maybe I’ll see you there!

(T-763)

Goldfinches Return – Day 347

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Goldfinches in shadow – Photo: L. Weikel

Goldfinches Return

What a reprieve today brought from the overwhelm I was feeling last night.

The exquisite late October weather made my heart sing. Deep robin’s egg blue sky provided the perfect backdrop to the brilliant golds, oranges, and crimsons of the maple trees in our yard.

Because I was lucky enough to work from home today, I sat outside on our porch and drank in nature’s swan song while I pecked away at my laptop.

Babies and Birdsong

Well, maybe not babies per se, but certainly fledglings suddenly appeared in the maple closest to our feeders. Their voices filled the air, which has been most unsettlingly quiet for far too long.

What was this? How odd. Why did what appeared to be an entire goldfinch family suddenly show up just this morning? Where had they been up until now? Not sitting on a nest for weeks at a time, surely? And yet here they were, acting as if they’d been here the whole time.

It doesn’t make sense. Are these birds gaslighting me? Ha ha; no, I’m sure not.

But it does bring joy to my heart to witness these babies (ok, fledges) fluttering their wings, seeming to tremble on the branch, while demanding that the mommy or daddy bird fill its beak with tasty morsels. These goldfinches most definitely were a family.

Where Are the House Finches?

But that does lead me to wonder what happened to the two dozen or more house finches that preyed on our feeders during the summer. I didn’t see a single house finch today (and haven’t since late September), and that, too, is unsettling.

Other Residents Returning

Another delight today, though, was that the blue jays returned in a seemingly strong show of force and presence. Four of them! And they resumed their nearly clocklike precision in back and forth flights carrying peanuts to their nests. Which again – begs the question: where have they been for the past month? Vacation?

Finally, two red shouldered woodpeckers graced the feeders today, a male and a female. Or a male and a juvenile, I’m not quite sure.

Silhouette of red shouldered woodpecker – Photo: L. Weikel

I did the best I could trying to snatch their photos, but the blue jays were both egregiously bold and frustratingly savvy. It didn’t matter how stealthily I moved my hand to my phone, or my phone off my lap. Those blue jays, often with a peanut hanging out the side of their beak like an old fashioned stogey, picked up on my effort immediately and took off. They were back within moments, having delivered their bounty (and they do always make it seem as though they’re stealing the peanuts, even though I provide them willingly) and determined to retrieve even more.

Blue jay butt – Photo: L. Weikel

As a result of their belligerent refusal to be caught red-beaked in the act, though, I only managed to get a shot of one of them from behind. A most unsatisfactory photo, I’ll admit, for they are actually stunningly lovely creatures. I adore their coloring and their sassy attitudes.

Maybe I’ll catch them on camera tomorrow.

Message of Goldfinch

Finally, I looked up Goldfinch in my Animal Speak* book (by Ted Andrews), and I find the anomaly from what is said there to be the interesting consideration today.

Goldfinch’s “Keynote” is: Awakening to the Nature Spirits and its Cycle of Power is the summer solstice and the summer season.

Clearly, it is not Goldfinch’s power time right now. Yet here they are; the ones indicating a potential return to normalcy.

Fairies, Elves, and Devas

“Black and yellow are the colors of the archangel Auriel. These colors in meditation and ritual are used to invoke that aspect of this being that oversees the activity of nature spirits – the faeries, elves, and devas. The high point of activity of nature is during the summer, its highest point being at the solstice itself.

The presence of goldfinches usually indicates an awakening to the activities of those beings that are normally relegated to the realm of fiction. Goldfinch can help you to deepen your perceptions so that you can begin to see and experience the activities of the nature spirits yourself This deepening of perceptions is reflected in the black cap – awakening to that which is normally hidden from view.

Goldfinches are usually permanent residents, and in those areas where they are found, you can also find the faeries and the elves. Goldfinches like border areas and young brush growth found at edges and borders. Edges and borders are intersections where there are natural doorways to that other realm of life.

Even their nesting habits reflects this link to the border areas, the ‘Tween Places. They build their nests in a fork on an outer branch high in a tree. It is usually made of thistledown. Thistle has a long association with nature spirits and the healing aspects of animals. Blessed thistle was once used to invoke the god Pan. Thistle has been a symbol of endurance. It is through endurance and persistence that we can open to the Realm of Faerie once more. Goldfinches are birds that can help us connect with those nature spirits that can show us how to heal animals – wild and domestic.

Goldfinches are rarely silent. This in itself is a reminder that Nature is speaking to us constantly and that we should learn to listen and communicate with it from all levels. It reflects that the nature spirits are around us at all times.” (emphasis added)

All of this makes me wonder: have all the birds been at a conference of Nature Spirits? Have they been communing with each other to perhaps figure out how to recalibrate their balance? To somehow counter the imbalance that we humans are bringing to nature, particularly recently? Maybe they are trying to figure out how to help us cultivate our endurance and persistence for the times we’re facing – the ones causing the feeling of overwhelm I mentioned yesterday.

It makes me wonder if there is any connection between the birds going on hiatus and the nature balancing I’ve been engaging in with the Essence of Perelandra on the 1stof each month.

Hmmm…

(T-764)

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Overwhelm – Day 346

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Dark Clouds – Photo: L. Weikel

Overwhelm

I’m feeling it.

Is it just me?

I feel as though I’ve been amazingly fortunate, the past 345 days or so, to almost always discover something to write about. At least something that was not akin to what my husband Karl has more than once very unhelpfully suggested to me as he headed to bed, leaving me on the couch with laptop at the ready:

“Jack is a very good boy. Jack is a very good boy. Jack is a very good boy. Jack is a very good boy. Jack is a very good boy. Jack is a very good boy. Jack is a very good boy…”

(That’s a reference to Stephen King’s The Shining, in case you either had no idea what I meant by that or thought ‘Jack Nicholson,’ yet couldn’t quite place it.)

Stuck

Yeah, I’m feeling that, too. But no, I’m drawn to explore the overwhelm  a bit further.

While I try not to talk politics a lot in my posts, sometimes the state of our country seeps into my writing. It’s hard to ignore. It’s hard to pretend that what’s happening at the highest levels of our government isn’t having a ripple effect both worldwide and on the most personal of levels.

Worldwide

On the world stage, the stunning selfishness and corruption has resulted in us betraying our allies, which of course – aside from becoming an immediate cause of death for many – will lead to others being wary of teaming up with us in the future. We’re no longer the sure thing. We’re no longer the country that aspires to be the world leader in all things just, admirable, innovative, and courageous.

We’ve lost our moral authority. (And yes, I know; we’ve not been perfect by any means. But overall? We’ve been a beacon of hope, light, and freedom to the world.

I’m feeling a sense of overwhelming despair that this is no longer true.

There’s a naïve part of me that chirps, “But as soon as we prove that we will not tolerate such blatant corruption, that our system of checks and balances will curb the egregious excesses and abuses of power, surely the rest of the world will ‘come back’ to working with us?!”

As each day unfolds, I’m feeling a despair in the pit of my self. I’m starting to despair that we can recover our stature. And I am not the despairing type. Yet…

Our Personal Microcosms

On the most personal of levels, I’m also feeling the overwhelm that’s blanketing all of us. Every day we’re confronted with a fire hose of revelations of how more and more and more ‘norms’ are just flagrantly ignored.

Norms – ways of behaving in a civil society that we, as a culture, take for granted and therefore do not need to legislate (i.e., we don’t need to create laws or rules that explicitly state what is right or wrong) – create a fundamental security. They’re sort of the ‘everybody knows what a red light or a stop sign means’ coupled with ‘we can rely on people stopping at these.’

I’m not saying that we, either personally or culturally, should become slaves to norms. I’m almost always behind a little well-intentioned effort to shake things up now and again.

It’s the Relentlessness

But the constant, day in and day out, flagrant and deliberate flaunting of norms is debilitating to our personal psyches. It’s wearing us all out. Even the people who chant inane tropes at rallies are, if they pay attention to their lives and their mental, emotional, and physical health, being worn the hell out by the constant barrage of uncertainty and unkindness, disrespect and despair.

Norms of polite society are disintegrating. People are starting, more and more, to just do what they want. There’s a growing disregard for simply doing the right thing for the right thing’s sake.

Yikes; this got dark.

I’m hoping this ‘overwhelm’ will pass quickly. It’s beating the hell out of my normally optimistic and idealistic nature. And while I suspect many of you are feeling it too, I do have to wonder: Is it just me?

I’ll do my best to bring a better game tomorrow.

(T-765)

The Birds Are Returning – Day 345

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The Birds Are Returning

Today was the first day in well over a month that I’ve had reason to feel a glimmer of hope again.

As many of you know, I’ve been rather freaked out by the complete absence of birds – not only at our feeders and in our trees here at our home, but everywhere around here locally. Karl and I have been commenting on the eerie silence of the forests and fields as we’ve walked and walked and walked.

And no, I can’t really blame it on the guy in the photo, above, either. First of all, I took this particular photo outside of my office – so it’s not as if he flew home with me to snack on our songbirds. But I’m keenly aware that its kin live here and, in fact, use our yard and the open space between our feeders and our small barn as a runway dedicated to harvesting tender morsels of delight.

Wet Weather

Sheila, our 15 year old Boston Terrier, needs extra encouragement to lope off the porch to relieve herself when it’s raining out. If we don’t go out with her, it is amazing how this pup – who used to be extremely fastidious about being a ‘good girl’ – will now just obviously say, “Screw it,” and unceremoniously just start to pee on the porch. Even if it’s just misting!

But because of that, (and because of her recent ‘go rogue’ moments when she’s chosen to go on ‘walkabout‘), I tend to go out with her every time she goes to the door now. All of which to explain how I found myself standing on the porch this morning, paying attention to what was going on right in front of me.

First, I heard some crows. They were, in fact, just regular crows – not the ‘fish crows’ which were may favorites throughout the spring and summer. But there were a good three or four of them, which made me happy.

Then blue jays. Two. Standing near the peanut circle and daring me to shoo them away (which I would never do). Finally, a couple goldfinches, three chickadees – and I could hear at least one wren, maybe more, in the brush at the edges of the property line.

Paying Attention

Perhaps I simply became hyper aware of the birds taking a vacation this year. I still find it extremely odd that all of them decided to up and leave completely, all at once, with nary a goodbye note. I’ll be curious to see if a similar departure from their frequenting of the feeders takes place next year.

Since it was misting and rather miserable out, I found it impossible to get a good shot of any of the birds that ‘came back’ today. My apologies.

The energy or ‘feel’ of today was weird. But I wanted to celebrate the return of the birds because it feels significant.

I used the photo of the hawk that was looking at me with that stink-eye of an expression because I feel like that’s how Spirit is looking at me right now.

“Get moving. Stop your nonsense,” is what I’m hearing on the wind. And that’s what I feel this hawk is saying, too.

I must get myself to bed. I have lots to accomplish tomorrow. Maybe even snagging some photos of a couple returned birds!

(T-766)

Comet Detritus Alert – Day 344

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Halley’s Comet – Photo: space.com

Comet Detritus Alert

I want to get this post written as quickly as I can this evening because I’d like to heed my own alert. I’m hoping I’ll manage to see at least a couple ‘shooting stars’ this evening before I head to bed. Yes: I am posting a Comet Detritus Alert.

You’ve all probably seen the articles posted recently on social media that entreat us all to make sure not to miss this cosmic show. Here’s an interesting article on the subject too. So, yes, tonight is the best night to ‘catch a falling star’ for quite a while, but it’s definitely not the only night, and of course it’s not the only meteor shower we’ll enjoy this year.

From Whence Detritus?

Halley’s Comet. That’s the source of the little pieces of rock strewn in a path through which we pass, and which cause a magical light show twice a year now, in May and October.

What I find pretty intriguing is contemplating that I made a point of peering skyward in 1986, when Halley’s Comet came blowing thorough for the first time in 76 years. I was so excited! Hard for me to believe that it was 32 years ago already.

I remember recalling how I’d heard about ‘Halley’s Comet’ all my life. In fact, it is probably the comet we know best by name – it’s sort of the cliché name that most people think of when they think ‘comet.’

Halley’s Comet – Photo: cnet. com

The Real Deal

Weirdly, though, when we located the comet in the sky that night, it looked stationary! We could see, especially using binoculars, the ‘tail’ of the comet – but it didn’t appear to our naked eyes to be really moving through the sky.

I don’t know why it felt strange, but it did. It’s not as if other heavenly bodies are stationary – and yet I readily accept that they appear stationary. Even the moon – it’s moving. But it’s not as if my eyes can detect that movement.

I think it’s because of the comet’s tail. Because the splash of light trailing the main chunk of the comet literally looks like it is moving through space, it stands to reason that it shouldn’t appear stationary from our point of view.

And yet it does.

Tonight’s Display

Actually, we’ve already begun passing through the detritus left by the tail of the comet as it passed through our inner solar system 32 years ago. It takes us just over a month to pass through that space debris twice a year (in May and October). But tonight is when the debris is thickest, and thus the meteors raining down through our atmosphere should be the most active and impressive.

Even if it isn’t the primary event, it’s nevertheless a humbling experience to realize how short our little lives here are when compared to celestial cycles such as this.

I Remember…

I remember making a point of looking for the famous Halley’s Comet when it passed by. It was in February of 1986, and the air was cold and had a bite to it, and the night sky was that midnight blue that is peculiar to deep winter.

I remember waking little Karl up so he could look at it too. Seeing Halley’s Comet is often thought of as a ‘once in a lifetime’ activity, since it shows up only every 75-76 years. But I remember specifically trying to simply explain to my little boy that he might be one of the lucky people who would actually be able to say they’d seen this amazing occurrence twice.

Karl was four and a half years old when Halley’s Comet last made its appearance. And yes, it was anticlimactic precisely because we couldn’t see it streaking across the sky. My son was decidedly not ‘wowed’ by the spectacle.

Nevertheless, I loved imagining him seeing it again when he was 79 years old or so – certainly not an outrageous dream – and telling his grandchildren how his mother, their great grandmother, dragged him out of bed so he could witness an event – twice – that’s only supposed to be a ‘once in a lifetime’ experience.

(T-767)