Eclipse Rave, Eclipse Poem, And A Book Review 🌒

(Hang onto your hat if you are wearing one, this is going to be a longer post than usual. 😄) The eclipse yesterday was really amazing! A friend sent me a pair of (approved) glasses in the mail a few weeks ago and I was so ecstatic! I had been scheming, trying to find a way to get a pair with no luck; everyone was either sold out, or my computer wouldn’t let me order, but who needs luck when you have thoughtful friends and an amazing God Who provides? ♥

Even though I had the glasses, I was still a bit sad that I didn’t have a filter for my camera so I could take a photo of the eclipse. And then I got a wild idea…

😂 😂 😂 I still can’t believe this worked. God is good! ♥ This was the peak for Arkansas; no totality here. (It was about 89% at it’s peak.) It got a little darker, but it wasn’t anything like I saw for the people who were lucky enough to be in the totality. It was still an amazing experience though! And I wrote a poem about it.

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Eclipse

Performance has just begun,
The moon eclipses the sun.

Moons shadow travels the land,
From Pacific shore to Atlantic sand,
Isn’t it all just so grand?

And in the midst of it I wonder;
My mind can’t help but wander…

Like Satan tried to deliver a blow,
Natural satellite blocks the glow;
Sun is too bright, creates a halo.

Even in darkness, God remains,
To guide us; Satan is in vain!

The only begotten Son,
Jesus Christ, victory is won,
It is finished; it is done!

I just want to sing praise
Today, what a gift He gave!

Reminders of His grace
Everywhere; I’m abased
And His sweet embrace

Tells His beloved children
Of His love, again and again.

As I stand captivated,
The eclipse terminated;
But joy abounds, elated.

The light defeats the night
As the sun again shows its might.

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Even though I didn’t get to see totality this time, there is another eclipse in 2024, in which Arkansas will be in the totality path, and I’m really excited for that! I hope I can see it then. 😀 Speaking of, have you seen the 2024 eclipse path compared to the one from yesterday?

Image from Biblegematria, originally from NASA

When I first saw it, there was an audible “Awww,” which confused my dad a lot. I had to explain that it looks a lot like a cross – if I tilt my head. This fact was even more amazing once I was reminded of the fact that the sun went dark when Jesus died upon the cross. (Thank you, wordcoaster8550!) “And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.” (Mark 15:33) That was one loooong eclipse, if that is what it was. How interesting is that?

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To get myself even more excited, I pulled Every Soul A Star by Wendy Mass from my bookshelf to read last week. It focuses on three teens preparing for a total eclipse. This is my second time reading this book; I read it a year or two ago and I loved it – it even has info in the back about yesterday’s eclipse (it was written in 2008)!

It’s a young adult book; I read a lot of YA because it doesn’t usually have quite so much cursing and suggestive themes in it.

What is unique about this book is that it has three points of view in first person – Ally, Bree and Jack. At first, this may seem confusing but when reading it, it wasn’t. Their points of view are so different, it was easy to tell them apart. Just in case it happened though, there is a symbol by the page number to let you know who is speaking – Ally is a crescent moon, Bree is a star and Jack is a planet with rings around it.

The following is the first sentence that each of them speaks to the reader:

“In Iceland, fairies live inside rocks.” – Ally

“I was switched at birth.” – Bree

“My father has no head.” – Jack

With introductions like these, I knew I was in for a wild ride!

Ally’s parents own a campground called Moon Shadow, in which they are preparing for the crowds who come to see the eclipse. Among the people coming to the campground are reluctant Bree, whose parents dragged her along, and Jack, who either goes here or goes to summer school. They have no idea that their lives will overlap at the campground and that they will change each others lives…

I identified most with Ally. Not knowing much about city life, knowing random facts about random things, living in the middle of nowhere, not to mention that she was homeschooled – haha, I liked her a lot.

If you’re a bit of a nerd like me, you’ll appreciate all the science facts about space in this book. 🙂 For a YA book, it was quite educational. And in places, it was hilarious. So for now, I’m going to experience an eclipse in totality through this book and its characters, and look forward to 2024.

Hope y’all are having a great week so far! 😊