Lori told me it was coming, the Perseid meteor shower. I hadn’t seen one during the peak viewing period from Aug 11 to 13th, but I was on the look out this morning.
And why Great One, why shower me with hundreds, when One will do?
And One there was, streaking downward from the wispy clouds, quicker than a finger snap, much too quick for my clumsy hands and human technology, but the eye spotted it.
And here I sit typing this post recalling a passage from Sebastian Barry’s Old God’s Time: “My brain continued to tell a story disconnected from his waking self…one hundred trillion neutrinos passed through his body every second. You wrote something down to see it, see it all for the first time. Write it down to capture it…Neutrinos passed them also, trillions of them…on their way to the floor, into the earth and through the earth herself at nearly the speed of light. They passed through his tumbling mind, all its channels and sparks…they passed through his fingers…”
And so with me.
My trillions of neutrinos wrapping themselves around that split second flash.
Hold that thought. Wrap yourself around it and hold it tight.
I will remember this.
Notes:
- See other photos from this morning’s walk here, my 1,196th consecutive (almost) daybreak walk at Cove Island Park. Like in a row.
- Post inspired by:..the great meteor shower of August, the Perseid, I wail all day for the shooting stars I miss. They’re out there showering down…and hissing perhaps at last into the ocean. — Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
