Relationship with the Moon

who could be so lucky?

who comes to a lake for water and sees

the reflection of the moon.

-rumi-

Day 21/31: this past april, i attended a "restoring balance" lunch at the seton cove. every tuesday there is a lunch with a speaker on a different topic. this day, the topic was "the moon." it coincided with a lunar eclipse that happened days before. as we started, the presenter asked everyone to go around the room. she said "please state your name and your relationship with the moon."

relationship with the moon? that was the first time i had ever been asked, or considered that question. i thought about it for a minute and spoke of my current relationship with the moon, which included helping my 18 month-old find it at all times when outdoors and "oohing and aww-ing" over it. 

one woman's story about her relationship with the moon struck me. a woman in her 70's, she shared a memory of being a young child in england. she said her parents woke she and her siblings up in the wee hours of the night to see the lunar eclipse. she recalled three little children outside, staring out in wonder at what was happening in the sky. the parents then provided black pieces of paper and pastel crayons so the children could capture their experience on paper. she said she will never forget that.

after an hour of reading poetry and quotes about the moon, we went on our way. i can't stop imagining those little kids coloring their own eclipses and what a gift their parents had given them, unconcerned with sleep and time, handing them paper and telling them to capture the magic.