Eclipsing Doubt with Change: Spring Eclipse Time!
Embracing Dramatic Changes with Today's Lunar Eclipse and Preparing for the Great American Eclipse #2
Maybe every spring is great and I just don’t remember it, but this spring arriving felt like such a gift. Warmer weather? Why yes, please, thank you! Sunshine? Don’t mind if I do? That yummy refreshing smell on cold mornings that melts into a warm afternoon, full of flower buds and cut grass? Why, this is delightful! Have other people heard of this great thing called spring?
Of course, then, on the East Coast, 60-degree days are followed by 30-degree days, and snaps of winter finally relinquishing its grip on us, reminding us not to take spring for granted—and that anything that can change, will.
So, greetings from the Full Worm Moon (so named because of its proximity to the spring equinox) and a Lunar Eclipse today that is part of an eclipse series also responsible for the Total Solar Eclipse coming in 2 weeks! Some are calling the upcoming Solar Eclipse “The Great American Eclipse,” and if this sounds familiar to you, it’s because there was another total solar eclipse seven years ago, in summer 2017, whose path of totality spanned North America. (Safety note: unlike the news announcers below, wear your eclipse glasses!!!!)
This spring’s solar eclipse is crossing the U.S. in a different direction (see below), so my husband David and I are planning to drive to Buffalo, NY, to catch the totality with our own eclipse-glasses-bedecked eyes. If I sound excited, it’s because I am!
But now, back to the life of writing, full moons, eclipses, and change:
I’ve written about eclipses before, last fall, when it felt like many things around the world were changing for the worse. (Not going to quibble with that estimation!) But now, in spring, a season of rebirth, warming, and hope, I’m hopeful that we can take some of this full moon and eclipse energy this month and next and put it towards changes we would like for ourselves and our lives.
To that end, I’m coming off of teaching a 3-Week Flash Memoir class for the Writing Co-Lab (take their writing classes! They are terrific! Also, they’re hosting a virtual summer camp!), with a group of some of the most talented and inspired writers I’ve met in a long time. Teaching that class with that group gave me all of this optimism about starting new work, and about how in just a few short concentrated spurts of writing, we can birth new creative work into the world, and complete important and meaningful thoughts.
Even just 10 minutes a day, or 15 minutes every couple of days, or a block of quiet time on a weekend or quiet morning, can add to that feeling of optimism, momentum, and creativity. Sometimes it just feels good to write, even if we are not as focused on “being productive” and finishing or logging time on one specific project, but just playing a bit and seeing what happens.
So I’ll leave you with two writing prompts, versions of which we used in the flash class (often my writing prompts are a choice between a few options):
Full Moon Writing Prompts — The Bonus Eclipse Edition
1) Write for 10 minutes about a moment when you knew nothing would ever be the same again. What had just happened? What was about to happen? How did you feel in the moment, and how do you feel later, upon reflection, knowing what you know now about how your life changed?
2) Write for 10 minutes about 1 of the two options:
What was a cherished object that you had, and how did it come into your life? What were the conditions around having it, and what stories does it open up for you?
OR
When did a cherished object get lost or destroyed? What happened? Why? How did it affect you? What stories does this object want you to tell?
I’m hoping to teach with the Writing Co-Lab again in the fall, so I’ll share my schedule when I have it. And I’m starting to schedule Book EVENTS starting in September (we are almost there on a cover!), so I’ll share those too, as well as how to pre-order the book, when things keep moving.
In the meantime, I hope you embrace the change of the eclipses coming up.
During the last Total Solar Eclipse, in 2017, I was not able to travel to the path of totality (the closest city for us in the northeast would have been Nashville), but I went up to Connecticut and spent the day with my dad and stepmom, and we viewed the partial eclipse from the pier by Long Island Sound near their home in West Haven. It was a hazy day, so the eclipse was not very dramatic, but we caught a bit of it. It was also the day before my dad’s birthday, so I asked him what his plans or hopes were for the year. (He’d had Stage 4 Kidney Cancer for two years at that point, which had metastasized to his legs, and while he was mostly in a wheelchair, he was still feeling pretty good and able to operate somewhat independently around his home.)
My dad looked at me, grinned, and said, “Kim, this is the year I’m going to get better.”
He died a little less than two years later after the eclipse, but that year, from August 2017 to August 2018, was a pretty good one. We all did the best we could with the time we had.
Here’s to using the time we have.
Oooh Buffalo! I thought about driving up to Burlington but the timing won't work out for me this time around. I hope to still be able to see a little bit though!