There was no sound of traffic. There was no sound of birds singing. There was just silence and darkness as we stood there for the next couple of minutes looking up at what little was left of the sun.

Slowly it started to become lighter again as more of the sun started to reappear and the moon continued its trek across the sun from the one o’clock position to the seven o’clock position.

The gathering resumed around the goodies on the table and more friendly conversation followed. But the party atmosphere was not the same. The occasion had become more somber. I think we knew deep down that we had just witnessed something truly amazing, something very few people ever see.

In those few short minutes, we had progressed from merely being spectators of the celestial wonders we see around us all the time; the moon, the stars, the planets, etc.

We had become much more than that.

For those few short minutes that we stood and looked up at the solar eclipse at its peak, it felt as if we had become one with the universe.