Recipe for (guaranteed) Wonder and Awe

(This recipe has been passed down in my family through the ages... it's just as good now as it was 1,000 years ago.)

Wonder and Awe

Ingredients:
- 1 scheduled meteor shower or comet (see the calendar at the bottom of this page)
- 1 clear night, no haze or cloud cover
- 1 early setting or late rising moon
- 1 meadow, field, clearing or yard away from night lights or ambient light pollution
- 1 (or more, as needed) large tarp or blanket
- 1 or more people with appropriately rated sleeping bags or quilts(must be willing to endure lumpy ground)

Procedure:
1. After checking the calendar, gather all ingredients and proceed to the meadow, field, clearing or yard.
2. Turn off all technological forms of interference.. block them from your mind.
3. Spread tarp or blanket(s) on ground.
4. If the ground is level, arrange the people like spokes on a wheel, heads toward the hub. Alternately if the meadow is sloping, arrange like sardines, side-by-side, with heads uphill. (If the night air is cool-to-cold, tightly packed sardines is a more appropriate method.)
5. Maintain a broad viewing horizon with a broad focus.
6. Relax, be filled with wonder and awe.
7. Drink it in deeply and enjoy.

Traditions.

2009! Hopefully to be a year of great change!
While some worry about world peace and the economic doldrums we chose to make the most of the first day of the New Year. First there were family gatherings, feasting and celebrations of epic proportions... then there were the traditional hikes up into the mountains..


Of course, when some of the older cousins are also SMG guides there are bound to be some extreme celebrations..
Air temperature : 22... water temperature : 32.1... fun factor: 10 of 10!

To be followed this week by a pilgrimage to Northern New England in search of climbable ice and skiable snow...






















..and along those lines, this cheerful thought (not!) from Accuweather's Henry Margusity: "as far as winter weather, thanks to global warming, Atlanta is the new Miami, Charlotte is the new Atlanta, Richmond is the new Charlotte, DC is the new Richmond, Philadelphia the new DC.. and so it goes." (sic)