A
moment in the universe
Monday 31 July 2000 (early)
Last night, just on dusk, I was standing in the kitchen washing the dishes and looking out across the harbour.
The wind had dropped right down, and the sky was darkening from blue to black, with a little light still left above the hills in the western sky.
Shimmering just above the horizon was a star. And “shimmering” is just the perfect word for it as it twinkled and beckoned. It lay just above the trees on the hills, with a few small puffs of dark cloud drifting by.
I watched it as it got lower to the horizon.
And I suddenly realised that it wasn't moving down below the horizon, but that the great vast bulk of the earth was slowly turning from west to east. It was one of those rare moments when I could sense the rotation of the earth and almost feel it move.
It was a wonderfully calming moment, and I felt connected to all sorts of things as the star dipped down below the line of trees.