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| courstesy of Danville Patch |
I started a list of times in my life when I marveled at something that was beautiful and fleeting.
On Wednesday night, just in time to add to my list, we watched a mysterious cloud in the sky after dusk when the other clouds had lost their sunset glow. The so-called cloud made a spiraling descent and then grew larger as it came nearer. Or it could have been the other way around. A rocket? A meteor? Santa Claus? We couldn't tell. We turned on the radio to hear that Vandenburg Air Force Base had scheduled a classified rocket launch at about that time, but the launch had been canceled. Next morning the American Meteor Society declared the cloud to be a meteor. Question: if the classified rocket was launched and Vandenburg didn't want anyone to know, wouldn't a meteor be a good answer? Just asking. The Geminid meteor shower is active in the sky right now so a meteor is the most likely reason for the display. Whatever the bright cloud is, it was a moment of wonder in our world.
Here are some of the other Moments of Wonder I've experienced:
Skiing in Utah while ice crystals, sparkling like tiny stars in the sun, floated around us.
Driving along California's Highway 1 where the sky and the ocean turned silver -- all of one breath-taking piece.
Turning a corner on a narrow mountain road north of Tahoe to find a vast alpine meadow, seemingly untouched and natural, which opened up the vista to my eyes and my heart.
Standing in the eerie (man-made) light at a rest stop in the middle of one of Norway's long mountain tunnels (as long as 15 miles).
Turningmy head to find a butterfly landing on my shoulder and silently flapping its wings.
Standing still while a hummingbird, caught inside our garage, batted itself against a window -- so exhausted that it dropped to the sill, allowed me to pick it up in my hand and to take it outside where it rested awhile, then flew away with a burst of energy.
Standing in the light radiating through Chartres Cathedral's stained glass rose window while an organist filled the space with booming Bach chords.
Sitting in the restaurant at the bottom of Mt. Takeo in Japan, where in July they turn off the lights and the fireflies cover the entire place with their light.
What moments of wonder have you experienced? I hope during this season you too will find some sightings of light for your soul.
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| Hand-carved angel and molding in an old Norwegian church |
Don't forget to send me your list of favorite books for 2018. marthaslavin@gmail.com
This has been a great year for reading books new and old.
ReplyDeleteBest of the new "Circe" by Madeline Miller a brilliant telling of a fascinating woman relegated to a secondary role in the Iliad.
Most unexpectedly moving: "The Soul of an Octopus" by Sy Montgomery. A memoir about coming to understand a shape-changing sea creature with an emotional life and a lesson not to assume that animals don't feel.
Writer I wish I had known about when her book first came out: Attia Hosain "Sunlight on a Broken Column" the coming of age narrative of a Muslim teenager growing up in India during the run up to Partition. It's old (from my Books and Chocolate 2018 Classics Challenge list), but it's timely which is probably why it has been republished more than once.
The best 'darn it - I should have paid more attention to what the narrator was telling me" book: the very enjoyable "Transcription" by Kate Atkinson.
I was walking home from school on a wintry, Pennsylvania afternoon. We'd had an ice-storm earlier that day and I was cold and in a hurry to get home as I took my usual route through a field of dry grass and bare shrubs. Something made me turn around in the middle of the field and I'll never forget what I saw. Behind me, each ice-coated twig and blade blazed in the low afternoon light. I remember my teenage self turning back and forth, enjoying the magical transformation from dreary field to fairy landscape, and marveling, maybe for the first time, by what slim chance I had happened to glimpse such beauty. I've never forgotten that day.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful description of a moment when your imagination was awakened. Thank you, Teresa!
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