The Most Beautiful Thing

By Richardl @richardlittleda

Lunar thoughts

Writing on this blog has been a little lacking this year, especially in the last quarter as creative energies have been absorbed with #thenote and other projects. However, before the year draws to a close, I wanted to pass on these beautiful reflections to you. I came across them in a book of advent meditations. This particular entry was based around John’s ‘nativity’ in the first chapter of his Gospel.

As the crew of Apollo 8 passed around the far side of the moon, out of radio contact with the earth, on December 24th 1968, they spotted a remarkable thing. All their efforts, understandably, had been focused on the moon. However, when Bill Anders spotted the colourful earth comer into view over the drab surface of the moon, he took his famous photo Earthrise.

Jim Lovell, the mission commander, later wrote the following:

It was just another body, really, about four times bigger than the moon. But it held all the hope and all the life and all the things that the crew of Apollo 8 knew and loved. It was the most beautiful thing there was to see in all the heavens

And with that thought, and my rather inadequate view of the moon taken this morning, I leave you for 2015…

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