Celestial Dance

In my photography class today I went over my final project with glenn – he read over my artist’s statement and then looked at each of my photo/poems that I worked on over the break.  I was nervous.  glenn is a very very very good photographer … a ‘real’ artist … and I felt pretty vulnerable showing him this very personal work.  Fortunately, glenn is an excellent teacher – and he looked over my work, listened to my ideas for the project, helped me to think about some other options, and left me feeling pretty good about it. Phew.

It was still light and warm when I left class around 4pm, so I headed over to the trail.  I didn’t bring a camera, since it was cloudy and gray when I started out.  That might have been an error on my part.  As I strolled downhill, the clouds moved on and the sunshine poured over me.  I basked and walked and thought about my project, I chewed on a few issues that have been on my mind … I sang a little … chatted with fellow walkers, greeted the dogs, and sat for a bit on ‘my’ rock watching the sunlight on the Big Butte, Timber Butte, the Ridge.  Beautiful .. as always.  But it was just a preview.

On my way back, I noticed the waxing crescent moon was emerging into the early evening sky.  Last night I had gone back to the trail around sunset to try to catch some of the images of the conjunction that has been unfolding over the past weeks.  It was lovely … nice.

This afternoon, after seeing the moon, I slowed down, looking for her partners in this evening’s dance – Venus and Jupiter.  Venus peeked out first – shining more and more brightly as the clouds began an amazing show of light.  I slowed even more as the colors of a late-autumn Montana sunset surrounded me – 360 degrees of horizon and no matter where I rested my eyes I was stunned with the glory of primal beauty.

As the sky darkened just bit, Jupiter emerged to join the conjunction of heavenly bodies.  There were wisps of clouds that sailed over the group – veiling and unveilng each of the shining lights in their turn, as the colors in the skies intensified and then fading out into true twilight.

There are experiences of beauty that change you … and even though you must keep putting one foot in front of the other and move through your days you are not the same person you were.  This evening was one of those experiences.