Monday, Eclipse, Transit, and More

Today's Sagittarius full Moon is a partial lunar eclipse, with the Earth lining up between the Sun and the Moon so that the Earth block's the Sun's light from fully reaching the Moon. Unfortunately those of you in New England and eastern Canada will miss the entire eclipse since the event begins after moonset in those regions. Those who live  in western Canada and the United States  will have the best views with moonset occurring sometime after mid-eclipse. Those living in the Pacific and eastern Australia will be able to  catch the entire event.

All of the tribes of the Algonquin nation knew this moon as the Strawberry Moon because June is typically when the strawberries begin to ripen and are gathered.. Among the Cherokees, it is the Green Corn Moon. Elsewhere, June's Full Moon is known as the Rose Moon, probably because it shines low in the northern hemisphere's sky and our atmosphere gives it a pinkish color. Others called it the Hot Moon for the beginning of the summer heat. 

In old England it was known as the Flower Moon because the showy wildflowers are at their peak. It is also known as the Honey Moon because it is a time to gather honey from the hives. The term “honeymoon” may have come from the fact that June's Moon is often more yellowish from the heat and humidity in Earth's atmosphere—and June is the traditional month for many weddings.

Tomorrow there will be a transit of Venus and the Sun. A transit occurs when, as viewed from the Earth, a relatively small body passes across the disk of a larger body, usually the Sun or a planet, eclipsing only a very small area.  It is similar to an eclipse. There are only two planets that do this— Mercury and Venus. Beginning on June 5th and ending on the 6th, Venus will transit the sun.  This is such a rare occurrence that no person now living will ever see another.  Venus will appear as a small black dot gliding slowly in an East-to-West direction across the disk of the sun. As in a solar eclipse, do not stare directly at the sun; wear special protective glasses. The next one will not take place until  December 11,  2117.

I've been having a rough time of it, and spent this weekend recuperating.    Started out Tuesday with a sore throat. I'd gone to work and was feeling pretty miserable, but I stuck it out. The soreness let up a day later, and I was actually feeling quite well; that is, until later that night after I went to bed. My throat started an almost non-stop tickling, and I was awake all night with bouts of coughing. Without any sleep, there was no way I was going to work so I called in sick. And, it was a good thing I did because...

...by mid-afternoon,  it had settled in my chest, and I took to the bed. By the next day, my voice was gone, and the coughing  was just about uncontrollable.  It got so bad that I ended up pulling a muscle, and thereafter each cough felt like a knife shooting through my side.  Laid awake all night in pain and doing whatever it took not to cough, including keeping a Halls Honey Lemon in my mouth at all times.  At some point during the night I must have dozed because I woke up gasping. I'd swallowed the cough drop. What a scary feeling that was!!!

Truthfully, I've not been this sick in years. For me to lose my appetite, you know I am sick because I can usually eat through anything. Guess the one blessing here is a few lost pounds. Still coughing, still in pain, but slowly things are beginning to improve.  Everything in life happens for a reason, and miserable as I have felt, I am aware that I've not been taking care of my temple as I should be.  Poor diet, lack of exercise, all add up to ill health. Time to get myself back on track.

You can find examples of how little we value ourselves everywhere you look.

The signs on the front of the convenience stores where Stephen lives in Florida

tell the story. Beer, ice, bread and milk are the big come-ons.

The order of the words varies, but beer and ice are always

two of the top four staples for sale. If we were all taking care of ourselves,

wouldn't the convenience stores compete for our dollars

with signs that read "Fruit, Vegetables, Bread, Milk"?

Bernie Siegel