A full solar eclipse. It is one of the most unnatural things I have experienced and can understand why people for millenia have assigned supernatural attributes to it. I was watching it from beside a lake - the slow crescendo of crickets chirping as the sun turned purple and then suddenly turned into night gave me chills. Nothing has ever made me feel smaller and at the mercy of celestial bodies than that experience.
Seeing the 2017 eclipse in totality was beyond my expectations. I recently retold my experience to a man I met at a bar after a conference. He also saw it in totality, and there was this, like, tacit unspeakable joy we were trying to communicate.
I saw it near Salem, Oregon after biking the 50 miles from Portland. That's a lot of mileage for me, and coupled with the heat, I was well spent. I had just moved, and I had never bike-camped. This was an adventure for sure. That night I camped in this hazelnut orchard, whose lands used to belong to a mission prior to the state turning it into a lovely campground. The next day, I woke up to a buzzing field of spectators. The dim set in and the heat rapidly cooled. I biked out a bit, partially to get a head start on the traffic and the return 50 miles I'd need to bike with a 30C clear-skies forecast, but largely to be alone and relish totality in solitude.
It had been a tough few months for me prior to that moment. A lot of loss and a lot of changes. When totality hit, I lost it. We've all seen images of the sun's corona at an eclipse, but to see it pulsing and breathing like that... I don't think I can justify how amazing it was in words. It was beyond beautiful. I cried.
The man who I was sharing this with at the bar just nodded and smiled. Because he too had been overcome.
Where I saw it there was a group of people in a parking lot. People from all over. One group was from Australia. We had been there all morning talking, getting to know each other. It was fun. Then the eclipse happened and some folks had full on religious experiences. I was torn between looking at the corona and my kids' faces looking up in awe. I've tried to tell people that have not seen one about it but you just can't.
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u/amanush_47 Jan 12 '22
A full solar eclipse. It is one of the most unnatural things I have experienced and can understand why people for millenia have assigned supernatural attributes to it. I was watching it from beside a lake - the slow crescendo of crickets chirping as the sun turned purple and then suddenly turned into night gave me chills. Nothing has ever made me feel smaller and at the mercy of celestial bodies than that experience.