more theology

my wife (known to some of you as lucy) emailed this afternoon to remind me of a full lunar eclipse scheduled for tonight. i skipped out of a meeting i probably should have gone to, but it was worth what ever trouble i'll be in...

the site was spectacular - and for a guy who gets excited about rocks (see yesterday's post) - you can imagine what a thrill this was. i arrived home just as earth's shadow eclipsed the moon and for about an hour we sat out on the deck and watched the show unfold. and miracles of miracles (this is seattle, right?), who would have thought we'd have a crystal clear sky to watch an eclipse in the middle of february? ten minutes after i took the last picture, clouds had completely obscured the scene. the picture above was taken just before the moon peeked out from behind earth's shadow - a friend emailed a little while ago and said the two bright specs of light above and to the left of the moon are saturn and regulus; the picture below was taken earlier in the eclipse.

theology of geology

i went for a walk with a friend saturday morning through a state park on the key penninsula, southwest of seattle. we came out onto a beach strewn with some of the most beautiful rocks...hundreds, thousands, millions! for some reason the scene brought to mind the title of a book i'd recently read, written by the late stephen j. gould - "rocks of ages" a wonderful and (in my opinion) successful attempt to view science and religion as noncompeting realms which can each play a meaningful role in our lives. this post is more about the science of the literal rocks on the beach. what a thrill to look at and hold matter that is positively ancient....tens if not hundreds of thousands of years old...and imagine the journeys each took to finally arrive on this out of the way beach in western washington.  i'm sure this kind of wonder displayed toward....rocks will elicit a few eye-rolls; i could care less - this stuff just stirs me to my core!

Top 3 Favorite Shots of 2007: #2

this image isn't on the main site yet....it'll be added during the february update, but i thought i'd share it now since it's 2007 favorite. there isn't a big story around it - a perfect example of what happens when you walk around with eyes open! my daughter and i went to see friends on the east coast in the middle of december and one of the mornings there was a light frost. autumn leaves are a favorite subject - their colors and textures make for infinite possibilities and the ice crystals really dressed this one up.