A couple nights ago the moon turned red. It was deemed a “blood moon” by the mainstream media. Thanks to a cloudy night in Columbus, I was unable to view it from the sky but the internet came through as it usually does, and allowed me to catch the rare occurrence. The next total lunar eclipse? October 8, 2033. Hopefully, I’ll be three days away from turning 48.

Two things make the lunar eclipse special. One, it looks absolutely amazing. Words do not do it justice. Two, it’s incredibly rare. It happened five times in the 1900s. Let me repeat, five times, in one-hundred years. You would be lucky to see it four times in your entire life.

There’s no surprises with the lunar eclipse as we know when the next one will be. It’s something calculable. There’s no guesswork involved. We don’t wake up one day, hoping to see another “blood moon.”

There’s something peaceful about that notion, of knowing EXACTLY when the next rare occurrence will take place. Most other things in life don’t work that way. They leave us guessing, waiting, hoping. It fosters an atmosphere of anxiety because sometimes even DURING a rare occurrence our brains are wondering if we’ll ever see this again. Talk about not living in the moment.

An upcoming “moment” will take place Saturday night when Notre Dame travels down South to visit the Clemson Tigers. Both teams enter undefeated, and only one will leave that way.

I started following Notre Dame football seriously in 1993. I was eight. In the 20+ years since, I’ve experienced five games when both Notre Dame and their opponent were undefeated after two weeks of football.

Last week I talked about appreciation, and how I hoped to do more of it. Well, this week we’ll take a look back at those five games and then a look ahead to the sixth against Clemson tomorrow night. All the while, trying to learn to appreciate things as they happen.

Continue reading “A Total – Notre Dame – Eclipse Of The Heart” →