From the giddy moments when it felt as though I was suddenly transported into air conditioning from a warm Spring day, to watching a ring of light burst around a hence unseen black orb in the sky, to the thrilling darkness that swallowed the sky and brought out the stars in the middle of the day, to the stillness of a world unsure what to do, to every moment since – I’ve struggled to put into words the conflagration of emotions that live on the edge of my vocabulary.
I may be able to describe what I witnessed, but the feelings that flooded my soul during the Solar Eclipse of 2024 are beyond my skillset to properly express. As I write this, it’s been well over a month since those 3 and half minutes of Totality, but there has been no mellowing of the exhilaration inside of me.
Many experiences in life, no matter how great, tend to have diminishing returns after the first time they are experienced. There is no longer that shock or surprise of the initial encounter – you know what to expect. Yet you may look forward to it again, fully knowing that it won’t have the same impact. Despite this, I knew that I was going to do whatever I could to be in the 2024 Path of Totality ever since the moments after the first Total Eclipse I witnessed in the Summer of 2017 (which I wrote about here). Nothing could have prepared me for that wow and slight bits of terror that I experienced as everything I knew about the day was twisted and turned upon its head.
I’m telling you that your second Eclipse contains with it no drop off of wow. The returns were not at all diminished. There was no “simply enjoying” that which had been witnessed before.
Every bit of this Eclipse was a new, shocking, wow-filled, awe-striking, burst of wonder that fills your heart to overflowing about the grandeur of being alive. I don’t know how one could walk away from witnessing what I saw without this flood of emotions.
While the internal rush and saturation of what I can’t describe any other way than glory that saturates one’s soul is such a personal and unique experience, it’s also a collective experience that you see on other’s faces as you come down off of when the darkness retreats and the warm light of the sun returns.
Even though I had set myself up in a random field of grass outside of a commercial park (oddly enough, the International Headquarters of the Jesters – who knew that was a thing?) I did turn away from the returned sun and caught the eyes of a family who set up some hundred feet away. Reflected back at me was a look that said “did that really just happen?” Their smiles appeared in a slow expansion of overwhelmed wow, mirroring the smile that was overtaking my own countenance.
I gathered my gear to head to the airport and every bit of the journey felt as though I was floating. While the sun was shining as though nothing special had happened, that it hadn’t just been upstaged and knocked off its throne for a brief few moments, every person I encountered was clearly actively trying to grasp what just happened to them.
The closest I’ve ever come to this collective overwhelming is in the walk away from a last second winning touchdown by the home team at a football stadium. Even as I type this, I realize what a poor comparison this is – yet it’s the only other example I can think of. Everyone just has this giddy excitement across their faces as they come down off the high of unexpected jubilation.
Airports are not known as places of easy-going understanding, yet that afternoon Indianapolis International Airport was full of smiles and kindness. No one grumbled as they went through security, strangers were helping each other, and all couldn’t wait to hear of others experiences despite knowing that they experienced the exact same thing. Each person seemed to have the same photos to share, yet all viewed each other’s eagerly and expressed oohs and awes. It felt in those hours after the Eclipse that we were all on the same team and that we were all there for each other. A truly uniting experience.
For the most part I just drank it all in, basking in the afterglow that was in fullness still glowing inside of me. At times, I got to chat with various people at the restaurant, gate, and on the plane itself – taking time to focus in on a different part of the Eclipse we all witnessed. Sometimes I spoke about how the temperature dropped (what I found out was nearly 10 degrees) and how shocked I was that it cooled off all at once yet without any breeze ushering it in. Other times I talked about those last few moments before Totality when it looked as though a controlled demolition was occurring as sparks of light encircled the sudden appearing outline of the moon now visible (it’s so wild how dominant the sun is in the sky with its brightness and how without the filters, you’d have no idea it is slowly being covered up until it nearly is). And other times still I talked about how quiet the world got during Totality – it was as though along with the light, all sound was dampened as well.
While we all experienced the same event, we all took something unique away from it. For most people, this was their first Eclipse – yet every one of them had the same question and then resolve that I had after my first Eclipse: when is the next one, because I have to see it again.
No amount of photos, no matter how good they are, can convey what those 3 minutes of Totality are like. The feelings experienced, the wow unleashed in your mind, the collective wonder that you share with those around you – they must be taken in directly at the source with your own eyes, your own ears, your own heart. I’ve seen a great number of amazing things on this planet, but none have touched me in such wondrous ways.
The next Total Solar Eclipse in the world takes place in Iceland and Spain in 2026, and the next Total Solar Eclipses in the United States occur in 2044 and 2045. I know all those dates seem like they are far away, but like all grand things – they are worth the wait.