As the excitement and anticipation grows for the total eclipse of the sun today, people are getting their “safe to watch” equipment ready.

Throughout life, one discovers that there are many things that cause blindness beside optic diseases. BB guns, sleeping with contacts in, reading Playboy alone, and of course, staring at the Sun.

We’ve been told repeatedly for the past few weeks, that protective eyewear is a MUST if you plan to actually look at the eclipse. For many, the warning “Don’t touch, it’s hot and you’ll burn yourself” will be ignored…they’ll look. What I just learned is, your retina can get burned causing permanent eyesight loss, and you will not even feel it. Nothing like Paul (Saul) experienced.

My baby blues will be safe. I am not planning to look at Heavenly bodies today, but rather I’m keeping my eyes and ears focused on the Earthly reaction to this phenomenon.

My birdfeeder has been mobbed all morning. They know there’s something looming. They want to eat early and get back to their nests to safely experience the early nightfall. I don’t expect to see any owls or bats emerging, but they reportedly do. Orb-weaving spiders in Mexico dismantled their webs during the totality of the eclipse in 1994. And, the MN state bird, the mosquito, will be having an afternoon brunch.

Nature’s reverence for the acts of God will be evident in the silence that blankets the air.

I’ll be watching the movement of shadows caused the by the movement of the moon. Nora and I observe the seasons based on shadows. If you look at it panoramically, you can see the shade seep into nightfall…and the lighting is unique, depending on the time of year.

The shadows and their movements today will be truly interesting to watch…like a movie in fast mode. My memories of this eclipse will be how my neighborhood looked, not the sky.

When the excitement fades from today’s event, we need to turn our attention back to the actions of haters, and stop their attempt at a total eclipse of the Son.