I Found Another Moon!

Whew… the start of this year has been full. It’s been full of friends and fun and craftiness. That’s very new to me, the “full of craftiness” part. I know I haven’t shared any with you, but I will, I promise. By the time I’m done it’s always too dark to get a decent and glare-free photo.


In the meantime, I will share with you my thoughts, and a fun story.

Reflection seems to be the key this month. I am taking a class which has been guiding me in some reflection on my life and the topic over at Inside Out is Reflection, so it’s a double-Reflection, double your fun month. Hey, remember those twins? Double your pleasure, double your fun, double-mint, double-mint, double-mint gum.

Whoops, sorry, I drifted off there a little.

(here comes some reflection…)

So, needless to say, my brain has been getting a work-out. I’ve been thinking about my childhood, who I was, who I am, who I want to be (again) and all the things that brought me to the here and now on my life’s journey.

As I was getting ready to drive to work this morning, I backed out of my snow-covered (even though I did shovel it, Dad) driveway, shifted my car into first gear and looked up. Wow! There was the moon. It was down low, which always makes it look HUGE and it was bright, bright, Bright! The sun was just shining right on it and it was just breathtaking. I think the moon during daylight hours is always attention-grabbing, but this was so big, so bright… it was spectacular! I almost stopped to go back into the house to get my camera, but didn’t (moon/sky photos just don’t come out as big and glorious as the visual of seeing them “in person”, plus, you know, I had to get to work).

I started to reflect upon why the moon is so attention-grabbing to me. And my thoughts drifted to my love of nature and who I got that from (my parents). I couldn’t remember if they pointed out the moon to me as a child, but I remember someone sharing with me the Big Dipper in the sky. That started my love of star gazing.

As a side note, I find it interesting, to this day, how few people actually look up. The Hubs, for one, had never seen some constellations that I pointed out to him… Orion, Cassiopeia. And truly, my star gazing abilities are limited… the big dipper, little dipper and the two aforementioned constellations are about what I can find. But I know that the big dipper is part of the constellation Ursa major, but I’ve never been able to see the full constellation. Light pollution, I guess.

So, as I turned the corner on my street, I took one last good glance at the moon before it would be at my back for the rest of my commute. Suddenly this little three-year-old girl voice popped into my head, excitedly saying, “I found another moon!”

(here comes the story…)

When our youngest (aka The Girl) was around three years old, I remember driving somewhere with The Hubs and she at nighttime. She was in her car seat in the back and we were chattering back and forth. She got really quiet for a while and I thought she’d drifted off to sleep until I heard a quiet, “what’s that?!” drift up from the back of the car.

“What’s, what, honey?” I remember saying.

“That!”

I twisted around in my chair to look at her in the back seat to see what had captured her attention. She was gazing out the back window, looking up at the sky, with her little finger pressed against the window.

I turn back around in my own seat and look out. “Oh. That’s the moon,” I said.

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She tried the word out on her tongue, “mooooooon.”

“Yes, you found the moon!” I said. “Good job!” The Hubs and I smiled, and I was laughing quietly at her little-girl amazement at the moon.

More silence passes and then I hear her gasp, a quick intake of air, “I found another moon!” she said excitedly. “You sure did,” I said, laughing.

It was very funny and adorable and cute and awe-inspiring through the eyes of a child. We found at least 17 moons that night. And the sound of that exploration still rings through my head:

*gasp* “I found another moon!”

It makes me smile, every time.