2024 April 8 We are Stardust

 “We are stardust

          We are golden

               We are billion year old carbon

                    And we’ve got to get ourselves 

                         back to the garden”

                              ~Joni Mitchell

The Total Lunar Eclipse enchants me. This afternoon we will have a false night. The birds will sing their evening songs. The sun will feel like it’s setting. It will get pitch black like a new moon night. I will be in a field surrounded by nature and other humans and hopefully we’ll oooh and aaaah together. 

For kids at the right age, this might be a core memory. A student of mine told the story of how her dad drove the family to Tennessee in 2017 to see the last one. She must have been six. That will be a memory forever, and so will this one. 

My generation has the “Where we’re you when ___?” memory about September 11th. I was in AP US History at the time, junior year of high school; an intense class for an intense moment. We have sad life-changing moments, so why not celebrate happy ones too?

I also have the memory of the 2017 partial eclipse in Cleveland at the Toyota dealership buying my car while everything went dark. I was just about to switch jobs and start working at Campus International High School after 7 years with the Positive Education Program. Here I am 7 years later about to switch jobs again. 

I love taking time to reflect on our place in this world, solar system, time period, position in the universe. We’ll never be right here again. I feel lucky that I know what I want to do with the rest of my time here…I want to make this Earth beautiful and regenerative and live intentionally for the rest of my days.

A blooming Trout Lily friend who we only see for a short period every spring.