Just Relax And Remove It From Your Thinking!

I am taking the trash out. I smell the air and feel the rain about to come down even before it does. The clouds are moving in quickly with the setting sun playing hide and seek with them. And why not I think? After all, the sun in all his might has just experienced the love of none other than the moon herself just that afternoon! That total solar eclipse was out of this world. The celestial dance of love between the sun and moon, like the dance between Shiva and Parvati themselves, was certainly a once-in-a-lifetime treat, though yours truly here has been fortunate to witness the same more than once! The amazement with which we all watched our surroundings change as the moon closed in on the sun was spectacular. But what was more spectacular was how that mighty, orange, glowing, and fierce sun softened, the same one who usually does not allow us to see him for more than a second but gave a gentle white ring of glow popping a diamond just before the moon completely enveloped as if accepting is something to be witnessed and not described! I personally felt that the moon was showing the world that with some gentle love, all is possible - even that mighty sun can show his soft side bowing down to the love for almost 4 minutes with all of us as witnesses, allowing us to look at him with our naked eyes! The birds chirping home, an owl hooting, dogs barking, lights coming on automatically, and the cheers of the crowd at the union felt like a toast being given to the love and the union of the sun and the moon! Call me crazy, but, like many, I was in a different world! Standing tall, feeling the amazement!

I am drawn back to this earth by the noise of the trashcan wheels on my driveway. I continue to look at the sun through the swaying branches of my trees even as the clouds draw closer, thanking the clouds for not crowding to witness that celestial dance for themselves and depriving us earthlings of that joy! I am an eternal optimist, that I can assure you, but in the weeks leading to the eclipse, I have been reading stories of people missing the eclipse just because a big bad cloud decided to have a front-row seat! I was only reading these stories with a partial interest till a colleague stopped by to explain her experience! The last solar eclipse had her crying because of the very same reason. On a bright, hot summer day, with schools off, as families got together to celebrate the celestial dance, they were indeed dealt with a stroke of bad luck as a cloud decided to block the sun for precisely those two minutes before moving out slowly, and the sun glowing back as if nothing had happened. My colleague was beside herself with fear that it may happen this time, too, despite my assurance that it may not happen and that she should be positive. Besides, I could appreciate my colleague's feelings as that previous eclipse was on her first daughter's birthday, and believe it or not, this one was happening on her second daughter's birthday! What an amazing coinkydink!

All that reading and the personal story of my colleague did rub off on me, and my optimistic guard slowly started wearing down as I timidly went to my DH and asked him about the weather patterns. In his dismissive style, he kept telling me that it was too soon to predict the weather for the eclipse day adding 'let's wait and watch'. As we headed out that day, he answered my unasked question with a, "Well, I sincerely hope those cirrus clouds at 25,000 feet will clear before this afternoon!" He is a weather expert like that, trust me! I sigh, unable to think further. Even as I send a prayer up, not just for me but for all the people driving miles together to watch and the lucky ones who were watching in their own backyards, I could not help but invoke Bach, wondering what he would say. Just like that, I remember a scene from "Illusions", the same book by my favorite author, Richard Bach. Richard and Don are playing a game of making the clouds disappear in the sky! While Shimoda, in his inimitable style, asks, "What cloud?" to Richards's request to make the biggest, darkest cloud disappear while he struggles to remove the smallest whiff of a cloud from the sky. I tell you honestly that my heart beats faster even as I write this, Shimoda gives this advise to the baffled Richard - “If you really want to remove a cloud from your life, you do not make a big production of it, you just relax and remove it from your thinking. That's all there is to it.” And that is precisely what I did; the rest, as they say, is history!

It has been three or four days of cloudy skies and incessant rain, but immensely grateful for that magical afternoon! "Just relax and remove it from your thinking!" How wonderful! Just wonderful!

 

Dear Meen, @Scorpio707

Thank you, my friend, for your feedback! It gives me such a pleasure. The feelings while watching the eclipse were plenty, yet I can tell you that there were no feelings or thoughts; I was just in the moment. I loved how the surroundings glowed at 80 and 90 percent of the eclipse. There was this surreal feeling! I am fortunate to have witnessed the one in 2017, but the magic is still the same, especially considering it was longer. I could not take any photos, but I do have some candid shots of people, and no doubt everyone was enjoying it!

What can I say, fellow Bach enthusiast, about Bach? I still get many answers from the book, and I still read it ....a lot!
Thank you again, Meenu!

 

Dear @Thyagarajan sir,
Thank you for your very warm response