Story #1:
Flashlights bobbed along the trail before and behind us. It was a warm evening, and as we moved quickly up the hill, sweat beaded on our foreheads and our lungs were put to good use. For about 20 minutes we hiked and then, as the light of several campfires came into view we stopped. For they were not actual campfires. Instead, holes in the earth allow a strange mixture of gases to leak out, and they combust when they reach the surface. The dancing flames are the remains of a phenomena that has awed travelers for millennia: the Chimera.
As we stopped to take in the flames, the star encrusted sky, and the black outlines of the mountains against the horizon, we looked also at the moon, struck by it's odd shape. It had been almost full the previous night, but now it appeared to have decreased in size again - but in the wrong direction. The conclusion was inescapable: and eclipse! So we sat there, by ancient dancing flames and watched the moon be fully eclipsed by the earth's shadow. Years ago there were pagans who worshiped on this mountain, at these flames, awed by the magic of fire from the earth. What would they have thought on such a night, with the fires burning and the moon growing dark? We, however, are blessed to know and are known by the God who ordained these wonders.
Story #2
Under a darkening sky we made our way down the road towards the beach. Most of the tourists had left with the sun and anyone who might return after dark was still at dinner. So it was that we were alone when we rounded a curve and came into sight of the bay. A point of land stuck out, black against the twilight, and on the tip a campfire seemed to burn. As we walked closer to the water, however, we realized that the yellow light was not that of a fire, but of a huge orange moon that hung just above the horizon. The reflection in the water shimmered with the same orange glow as we sat down on the pebbled beach to watch it rise higher.
The frog's song, accompanied by the plunk of pebbles in the quiet waves made a perfect accompaniment to the silently, majestically rising moon.
Together with Innocent Smith, we celebrated being alive.
Flashlights bobbed along the trail before and behind us. It was a warm evening, and as we moved quickly up the hill, sweat beaded on our foreheads and our lungs were put to good use. For about 20 minutes we hiked and then, as the light of several campfires came into view we stopped. For they were not actual campfires. Instead, holes in the earth allow a strange mixture of gases to leak out, and they combust when they reach the surface. The dancing flames are the remains of a phenomena that has awed travelers for millennia: the Chimera.
Story #2
Under a darkening sky we made our way down the road towards the beach. Most of the tourists had left with the sun and anyone who might return after dark was still at dinner. So it was that we were alone when we rounded a curve and came into sight of the bay. A point of land stuck out, black against the twilight, and on the tip a campfire seemed to burn. As we walked closer to the water, however, we realized that the yellow light was not that of a fire, but of a huge orange moon that hung just above the horizon. The reflection in the water shimmered with the same orange glow as we sat down on the pebbled beach to watch it rise higher.
Together with Innocent Smith, we celebrated being alive.
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