Heaven and Earth

That was one spectacular, awesome celestial show last January 31, 2018! Imagine a heavenly triple treat all in one night! The moon and the earth at its closest distance allowed us all to witness that huge, super moon. That full moon was also the second to come by for the first month of this year, hence the label blue moon. Then the slow but just as amazing lunar eclipse that allowed us see a bloody moon up in the sky!

That remarkable celestial show was watched by millions globally! So many may have strained their necks gazing intently to see the moon's changing colors that night. In our neighborhood alone, parents with their children, couples, and friends were out patiently waiting for the moon that night to complete its astonishing blockbuster show for this century!

So many reflections for us mortals here on earth. Imagine, being connected with those who watched the same heavenly spectacle 150 years before! Imagine being remembered as well, a century or more from now by those who in the future will be treated to a similar celestial show!

This time around, however, in our century, knowledge has accelerated far beyond the lenses and ideas people had 150 years back. Science has developed, clear explanations about the super size and the bloody red color of the moon as well as the time of the various stages of the eclipse have become so precisely known and calculated. High-powered lens, drones, space laboratories and more allow us all to be closer in distance to that dramatic moon.

Imagine how knowledge, science, and technology will be a century hence! Will there actually be earthlings up on the moon to witness this celestial show we witnessed below the heavens, here on earth? Another reflection -we all became one that night. As John Lennon sang in 1971, who would have imagined that on that particular 31st of January 2018, there was above us, only sky. Imagine that night, all the people living for that night, no countries, nothing to kill or die for, and no religion too. Imagine that night, all the people gazing up into the sky, living in peace, as in a dream, all joined together watching the celestial show, with the world as one for that moment in time! Wow!

Oh, if we can only look forward to more heavenly spectacles to bring us all together, to bring this world together! Yet the challenge is how to unite as one, on earth, below the skies, below the heavens. Or how to make earth a heaven or how to have a heaven on earth.

Knowledge that is shared with and for all is liberating and allows us all to partake in the best of human mind and intellect! The experts on space, the moon, eclipses, meteors, and so on are allowing us to close the gap between and among us, between earth and heaven. Pursuing and sharing knowledge of our universe, of our earth, for the good of humankind allows us to be one.

Knowledge broadens our world and unites us together. Sharing the same goal to know, to know the truth is unifying, heartwarming. Knowledge and truth, pursued and shared, are beautiful lessons for us Filipinos in the aftermath of the January 31 celestial phenomenon.

We all have been gifted with beautiful creations here on earth. There are our rivers and oceans, our mountains and caves, our forests and trees, all other creatures co-existing with us. Do we know enough of our own world, our immediate environment to joyfully savor the rewards of that knowledge for our daily lives?

Sadly, even without completely knowing enough of our earth, of our own immediate world, instead of reaping the best of this world for all, we have desecrated and destroyed our earth, our waters, we continue to cut down our trees, and wipe out forests.

No earth, no heaven. Thank God, the heavens are still up there.