Out of state family. A Bernese Mountain dog named Kyss. Oldest daughter with a vacation day to spend with me. A van full of blankets, beach chairs, food, drinks, and eclipse glasses. Husband's brother offered to drive. Husband had to work. Youngest daughter had to work. (both saw a partial eclipse due to heavier cloud cover in the Albany area).
We were off to an early start to avoid most of the heavy traffic along the Adirondack Northway which begins in our capital city of Albany (we live just 7 miles north of the start off Exit 7) and goes all the way to the edge of Canada. By 10:30, when normally we would be at our destination (Schroon Lake Village, about an hour and 30 min north of my house in the Eastern Adirondack Mountains), we were at a standstill on the Northway. Sadly, there was a 3 car accident and amazingly the ambulance was able to get there quickly. This slowed us down by about 35 minutes but we were content to be patient. After all, the Eclipse wouldn't happen at our destination spot until 3:27 pm. The weather was perfect: 60 degrees and blue sky with sun and very thin white clouds. A slight breeze. Keep in mind, the Northway is never like the Mass Pike. Or I-95 from Boston to the Cape or Maine. Never. But we were prepared as were the state officials/emergency workers.
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near Chestertown, NY
Eastern ADK
8 April at about 10:45 AM |
Once we got past the accident, I had Peter get off at the next exit as I knew a faster route to the village. Sure enough, we had Route 9 North to ourselves!! NO one was on Route 9 north to Schroon Lake. Amazing. We arrived in town and had no problems getting a parking spot at the town park. We set things up and settled in to wait. It was about 11:45. Courtney and I discovered that none of the park bathrooms were open for the season yet so we walked a block to Stewarts and stood in line for 35 minutes for our turn in the bathrooms. Everyone was happy, polite and in a party mood. We ate lunch together (we had brought beach chairs, deli sandwiches, fruit, cookies, etc and plenty of drinks!)
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We had a great spot on the lawn of the park
overlooking Schroon Lake the eastern mountains |
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| Me, Kathy, Peter (Dave's bro) |
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| Kathy, Peter, Courtney and Kyss |
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more people arrived between 2-3 pm
and we all started watching the sun/skies
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By 3 pm, there was a good crowd. Children playing on the playground, babies in strollers and on beach blankets, boats on the water (three that we saw: a canoe, a kayak and a motor boat). We all began to check our phones for the time, and we made sure we had our glasses ready. And then it began at about 3: 25
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We started seeing the moon cover a small slice of sun
I took this wearing my eclipse glasses |
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| It's getting darker! |
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Here it comes!! Everyone is excited that we
will have 100% totality in Schroon Lake! |
And then!
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| photo courtesy of Courtney |
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almost there!!
photo by Courtney |
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Total Eclipse
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And that's when it hit me. This is like just a moment in our time....just 3 minutes of darkness. The lake stilled. The birds stopped fluttering and tucked into branches. The dog did a little whine and laid down. There was utter silence. It reminded me of what it must have been like when there was a 3 hour eclipse when Jesus was on the cross after taking His final breath. The entire world was black. The veil was torn in two!! HALLELUJAH!! I marveled Monday at how vast our universe is....at how magnificent the works of God are....His creation.....His planets....His universe. And how we don't just marvel at Creation but we should marvel at HIM. the Creator.
And after the silence.....after 3 minutes of almost complete darkness and silence....the cheers!! Over 500+ of us cheering this once in a lifetime (for many of us...some of us have seen partial eclipses here in NY) experience.
How much more so should we be cheering for Christ? If we can come together in unity for something like an eclipse, how about coming together to spread Peace and Kindness? To tell others the Good News of salvation? to be compassionate and patient all year round, every day, all day??
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just after totality
Schroon Lake, NY |
And then the darkness began to lift.......and the sun started warming things up again, the breeze came back up, the children shouted, ran and laughed... the crowds began to disperse.
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| just after totality |
And I just sat in awe that our God gave us this reminder that after the darkness, there is Light.
4 comments:
Hi Faith! This is a great post. I love how you juxtapositioned the eclipse with the crucifiction and resurrection of our Lord and Savior. I am so glad that you could experience this amazing event with your family. I think it is so cool how the eclipse brought everyone together for a few minutes, experiencing and cheering about the same wonder in the heavens. Glory be to God! P.S. Dave and his brother sure do look alike. See you again for the Friday Faves.
Wow, Faithe! I just love that you were able to experience the totality of the eclipse, and its so true - the silence is incredible, and the darkness astounding, in the middle of the day. I remember we had a partial eclipse, and everything got very still. I'm glad you were prepared to spend the day there, and had such a special time, you will always remember it! The pictures are amazing! Thanks for sharing, this makes my heart happy to know that people were so touched by this special event!
Wow! Amazing. Jesus said there would be signs in the sun, moon and stars. I'm glad you and your family had that experience. I too can't imagine what it was like when Jesus died and there was darkness over the earth. We in modern times know what causes it. Back then, they didn't. It must have been terrifying.
I love with people come together for common reasons and there is unity and friendliness. I'm glad you had that experience and were able to post about it.
So so cool! I love when God uses the nature He created to give us revelations of Himself and His word. Great post.
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