Pleasures Of The Soul
The Joyful Soul Stories Collection – No. 4
The clouds covered part of the sky in Likely, a small town on the Modoc Plateau where we stargaze every year. Once in awhile, nature intends a different display. We were listening to a fascinating lecture about star formation projected onto a large outdoor screen at twilight.
We had been treated to pictures of star nurseries ejecting volatile gases in unstable regions of space, whirling stars from the raw stuff of nature.
I have often thought in quiet times of my soul how gracious God is in providing us an almost nightly embellishment in technicolor. The evening had begun with streaks of pink and orange amid clusters of darkening clouds stretching across the horizon. I suddenly realized that this was going to be a spectacular sunset, so beautiful that the speaker was going to have competition from Mother Nature. I set the camera on the tripod and clicked it into place. My fingers could not move quickly enough. The sky was changing by the moment, the colors deepening into crimson. The clouds were trying with all their might to block the sun; but black and impenetrable as they might be, blues and purples brushed and painted the edges, and here and there a bit of golden light draped a thinner portion. Saturn was setting near a crescent moon.
The voice of the speaker drew me back to star formation. My Sweetheart filled me in on what I had missed. The sky grew dark as the lecture concluded. Thunder began to rumble in the distance, a low, muffled sound. The speaker began taking questions. Lightning bugs and moths swarmed in the light of the projector. Life prolific! There was a flash of lightning in the distance, a roll of thunder followed shortly. The speaker was dodging the lightning bugs. More lightning. More thunder. I was trying to figure out where it was coming from. Lightning danced among the clouds, lighting them up one by one. I felt my pulse race as the show began. One speaker finished; another began.
The drama continued. Images from our beautiful universe flashed on the screen. Galaxies, whirlpools of light, star clusters and gas pillars from nebulas marched across the screen. Symphony of the Planets was playing in the background. And all the while, lightning flashed in startling counterpoint. From one pleasure to the next! The bass drums blared, and thunder crashed. The video ended in a crash of drums and thunder. Nature played her own symphony that night.
The planned program ended, and the crowd dispersed. Pelted by big, wet drops, we scattered into our tents and RVs. The squall in the distance was drenching the high plateau. A spirited wind whipped the tents and tore at the mylar blanketing the telescopes across our viewing field. Astronomers charged out onto the field to secure equipment.
Now here is the piece de resistance: about eleven o’clock that evening, Mother Nature settled her ruffled feathers; the biggest light show began. Most of us had gone to bed. Determined not to miss a night of star viewing, a few diehards went out to the field . . . just in case. My Sweetheart was among them. The skies were clearing. He returned in excitement, and off we went to set up. The sky was sketchy with clouds, but beyond them, the viewing was spectacular. About midnight, a long finger of cloud directly overhead seemed to disintegrate in a matter of moments, and the full path of the Milky Way was unobstructed. From horizon to horizon she kissed the Earth in light. About two in the morning, we sat back from the telescopes and the cameras and just watched. The dome of the heavens descended upon the field; I could have reached up and plucked the stars, one by one.
