a companion piece to the poem of nearly the same title, I offered this as the Devotional at the Vermont House of Representatives today (April 11, 2024), a recording of which is at the bottom of this post.
Two or three minutes, more or less,
moving & shaking & touching
those within the exquisite umbral span.
![](https://awakeandwitness.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Untitled-design1-1024x205.png)
Two or three minutes
that led to somewhat replenished state coffers
after the previous summer’s ragged floods.
![](https://awakeandwitness.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Untitled-design1-1024x205.png)
Two or three minutes
that made astronomers of us all
introducing into our common vernacular
diamond ring (not meaning gaudy human ritual of engagement).
Also Baily’s Beads and 360° sunset
eye safety and Saros cycle
prominence and occultation and syzygy.
Umbra and penumbra and wow-without-words.
![](https://awakeandwitness.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Untitled-design1-1024x205.png)
Two or three minutes
when the place we intended to be
at 3:26 or 3:27 on April 8th, 2024 ~
depending on our personal & communal
brave little state topography ~
could be the glorious Colchester Causeway
or Newport in the Northeast Kingdom
or a patch of brown-to-greening lawn in Waterbury:
it was all equally lunar, equally solar, equally stellar.
![](https://awakeandwitness.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Untitled-design1-1024x205.png)
Two or three minutes,
that gave us our geographical generation’s
pale blue dot moment:
a visual & visceral reminder
made aural through the throated wonder
rising up from six thousand on the Burlington waterfront
and handfuls in front of the general store in East Calais.
![](https://awakeandwitness.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Untitled-design1-1024x205.png)
For all of us in the path of totality
~ scratch that ~
for all of us who, at any given time,
dwell within the reach of the sun’s warming rays:
yes, a visual & visceral nudge
that we are all, truly, siblings & cousins
sharing the same origins & the same destiny
in this vast cosmos
in this magnificent solar system
on this very planet,
![](https://awakeandwitness.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Untitled-design1-1024x205.png)
that deserves our sustained awe
translated into
a much gentler footprint.