Heroes Not Zombies

This is just an iPhone photo at night, so not a great quality shot, but what it captures is a special moment. You can see the crescent moon quite clearly, and now that I live in the countryside I’m constantly aware of the current phase of the moon. I notice when its a “new moon”, when it’s a waxing crescent, a waning crescent and when it is full. That wasn’t the case when I lived in a city. I guess when we live in a city, what with all the light pollution at night, as well as air pollution which seems to make the sky more obscure, that the phases of the moon are just not obvious. But there’s an element of attention too. City life = working life for me, and a lot of the time while working my attention and thoughts were absorbed in all the important things of the day. Consequently, noticing such things as the phase of the moon, slipped away from me.

I like that I am more aware of it now, because it gives me an ongoing sense of connectedness to one of the rhythms of the universe, that cycle of phases of our moon.

But there’s an even greater rhythm revealed in this particular photo – if you look at the sky at the twelve o’clock position relative to the plum tree, you might make out a star – or if you look really carefully you’ll see that it’s two stars, very close to each other. Well, they aren’t stars really, they are planets. Jupiter and Saturn. From our perspective here on Earth they seem to be occupying almost the same small square of space in the sky. They haven’t appeared this close to each other for hundreds of years and won’t again for another several hundred years. That makes this particular pattern special. It’s the only time I’ll ever see this in my lifetime. Generations of my ancestors never saw this, and generations of my offspring will never see it either.

Yet, it impresses me so much, not just because of its uniqueness, or, that it is so rare. What impresses me ever more is how this is part of a cycle of the universe which is way, way greater than I am. It is a rhythm, a pattern, a cycle which loops through generations….in both directions. That fact really strikes me. It humbles me. It puts me, viscerally, not just intellectually, in touch with the fact that I am part of something much, much greater than I am.

I find that intensely reassuring. I find it transcendent. I find it incredibly satisfying.

I also find it beautiful.

This is a great example of when the night sky reminds us that we are a part of flows, of patterns, of rhythms and cycles which are far, far bigger than we are. Isn’t that “awesome”, “inspiring”, “enlightening”?