Winter First Moon of the New Year
What a moon tonight, full and low in the northeastern sky, that golden tan color just before twilight. It hung there, as Kate said, as if someone had taken a photograph of a beautiful moon and cut and pasted it onto the sky.
(sadly, this photograph doesn’t do it justice, but it was splendid.)
There is no heavenly phenomenon that gives me more moments of sublime beauty, more catch my heart moving moments, more stand still and stare moments than the moon. A crescent moon with Jupiter in its arms. A full moon shining on new fallen snow. A half moon sending shadows down from tomato plants and iris. That full moon in the first month back on campus. A sweaty moon pushing lambent light through a hot and humid night, crickets chirping and lightning bugs flashing.
A moon standing high in the sky with the aurora borealis behind it. A moon reflected and shaken by ripples in a still pond. Koi pecking at the image.
I remember a moon one night, north of Ely in the Boundary Waters. It was January and my week long class on the timber wolf had driven out to an opening in the woods. We howled into the darkness, trying to get the wolves to howl back. The full moon that night. It said lunacy.
