Tales from th' Trails

It’s hard for me to write about the lunar eclipse, because it’s such a special thing- It’s like a sacred holiday every time it happens. As anyone who knows us knows, Fynn has turned our family into people who see planets, space and the universe from a unique point of view. 2015 was a hard year for us, but there were four lunar eclipses that year, and those four nights are some of the most precious nights of my life. I’ve written about them before, but those four nights were the only times that Fynn would talk to me like a real person, the only times that year we were able to have real conversations, the only times that year that he seemed like autism was not the ruler of his life. We’ve watched every eclipse since. This year was different, he’s grown a lot, but the eclipse was just as precious. We had a marshmallow roast beforehand. We got bundled up, took blankets and our sleeping bags outside, and made a night of it, like we always do. We can’t just look at it, glimpse it from time to time, we have to camp out under it and experience it. The whole thing, a good three and half, four hours of freezing, but so, so worth it. How many shooting stars did you see? We saw three. We heard all the dogs within earshot howling at the moon, then get silent, then howl again. We laughed. We looked through our binoculars. Fynn said that the moon is kinda like a negative of the earth. It has craters where we have continents. It’s black and white where we have color. And did you notice that totality lasted for a long, long time? Nearly an hour the moon was covered in shadow. The Moon looked like Mars up there, all dark red for so long. We carried a sleeping Rowan outside when the eclipse reached totality. He woke up and said “Oh!” We heard people all over our neighborhood opening doors, coming outside to peek, then going back in, over and over. We felt th’ cold. We stared at th’ moon, alternating with our eyes and our binoculars. We heard cars and motorcycles drive by. We wondered why they weren’t watching the eclipse too. Fynn was having a really hard time before the eclipse started, and as soon as that shadow hit the moon he was calm, and in his right mind. We watched Orion circle the sky, and Gemini, the twins. We watched Rigel, and Aldeberan, and Sirrius, and talked about how constant they are. Fynn asked if there was ever a green moon, and i said perhaps, but i don’t know. It’s moments like these that i live for. And i hope that it meant something for you, too. Peace to all you, our friends.