Taking time for the rarer things in life

It is finally, really summer. The weather proves it and the free time I suddenly have to lie in the sun, absorbing every hour of the day, is my way of cherishing the last months of my vacation.

It's a weird feeling, not having anything to do and actually being bored. This hasn't happened since I was 15 -- I don't know what to do with myself. The other night, out of sheer boredom, I decided to go to a nearby park and lie in the field to watch the stars -- something I wouldn't make time for during the school year. On the way there, I glanced at the enormous moon above me and saw something unusual. There was what seemed to be a bright light hovering over the moon. I thought it must have been a plane until I realized it wasn't moving. Then I thought perhaps it was a light on some kind of tower, and if I kept driving my perception would change and then I would see the normal moon. When that failed, my friend sitting in the passenger seat convinced me that my windows were dirty.

When I got to the park, I was mesmerized by the big gleaming "something," and intrigued by the unknown.

Little did I know I was witnessing a celestial event occurring for the first time in the past 600 years! It was an occultation (Latin for "hiding"). For people in Southern Florida as well as the Island of Bermuda, the Caribbean, Central America and northwestern portions of South America, the moon appeared -- for a short time -- to hide or eclipse Mars. I knew I wasn't seeing just any old star in the sky, that gleaming light was Mars!

Although we here on the West Coast were not able to see the actual eclipse, we were able to see it come very close, close enough for me to notice that this peculiar, bright light in the sky was something more than an airplane.

I couldn't take my eyes off it, but a little voice in my head told me I was wasting time and that I should be doing something "productive." I read about the spot in the sky the next day at work, disappointed I hadn't stayed longer.

I am sad to admit that I, like many others, am only aware of my own little world and my world is a social world, not the physical world. I make it a point to know what time my favorite TV show will air, but I couldn't tell you who is running for our state's governor. I can tell you when Dave Matthews is coming to The Gorge, but I have no clue about anything that happens naturally without consulting some sort of calendar. Whether it's an event calendar or an astronomic calendar, my schedule has little or no time for unplanned occurrences. I've neglected spiritual cleansing, family bonding and even bright stars in the sky. I spend my time being productive, not being at peace. Although my tan says otherwise, I am completely booked with things to do, but not with things to enjoy.

Living in this fast-paced world, we have forgotten about the beauty of nature and its slow pace. It takes more than going to church every Sunday to be religious, more than a phone call on holidays to be part of a family and, in my case, way more than an astronomy class to appreciate what goes on in space -- both outer and the one we occupy.

Daily events come and go, but theinstances when we are really happy are the most memorable. Summer is a time for students to intern, to work for that extra money that will last them through the school year, to party and mingle or to study more in hopes of getting into the "real world" faster, but it is also a time to relax, and a time to do what we enjoy most. In the end, no matter how fast we live our lives, the world we live in moves at the same constant pace it always has. The only race we are running is against ourselves.