Moon Thoughts

Yesterday evening I sat outside looking at the moon. Unlike the sun, it’s easy on the eyes. There’s no burning demand for your undivided attention. It’s just quietly cool, hanging there in the night, bathed in the leftover light of earth’s bright star. I’m a big fan of the moon. It rings a lot of bells deep inside me.

I can recall as a child going for drives in the desert around 29 Palms, California on nights of the full moon. First, it was cool. Literally. You could see forever across the moonlit white sand through the Joshua Trees. Then later, as a dad living in the country, on a long straight country road, we’d turn off the car lights and drive by the moon down a shining ribbon of asphalt. And of course, there were always the camping trips. No tent was thick enough to keep out the moonlight.

Luckily, I’m still making moonlight memories. There was the night we came down off Guadalupe Peak, and numerous nights under the stars in Marathon, Alpine, Marfa, and Lajitas. Plus nights in Red River and the mountains of Colorado. I guess that’s part of the moon’s beauty, it’s always there for you. And all you need to do in return is pause to stop and look up.