Moon Rise

Did you see the moon Tuesday night? It was amazing!

It was one of those things that stops you in your tracks. I was at a meeting that finished up right around 7:00, and when I walked out into the parking lot, there it was, straight ahead, hovering just above the houses - the full moon. Huge. Glowing and silent and beautiful. The kind of full moon that seems to look at you, seems to reach out and bathe you in light.

Funny how we never pay it much attention, the moon. It waxes and wanes, rises and sets on its own schedule, even popping up in the daytime like it's gotten lost, and we hardly notice.

But as I stood there, out in the moonlight, I suddenly wondered, how many other people, right now, are looking up?

The next day I decided to try out a little experiment. Through the whole day I asked people, casually, "Did you see the moon last night?" I mentioned it to the bank teller, to the guy behind me in line at the grocery store, to the folks at my choir rehearsal, the friend I had coffee with. Nearly every single person lit up and nodded. "Wasn't it incredible?", they'd say. Suddenly we all had something in common, no matter how old or young we were or what our bumper stickers said.

Some things are steady and unchanging, doing their quiet work, and we have them to thank for the world we know and love.

Did you know (I didn't, until I did a little digging) that the moon keeps our earth steady? It keeps the tides rising and falling, but it also slows the Earth's spin and keeps it tilted without wobbling. Can you imagine a day only six hours long? Hurricane winds and deadly weather? That's what life would be like without the quiet, steady presence of the moon.

It moves around our earth as it has for billions of years, just as it rose and set above the pyramids and over empires as they rose and fell.

Your ancestors looked up at that moon, from boats crossing the ocean, or from above the trees on their homeland.

And right now, while you read this, someone on the other side of the world is looking up at that same lovely moon.

It's shining down on newborn babies opening their eyes for the first time, and on folks taking their last breath in that soft light. It's floating over crowded cities and quiet farms, over ocean waves as the tides rise and fall; over war-torn lands, where smoke hangs over rubble. And perhaps, if we can all find a way through these hard times, it can shine down on a healthy world a thousand years from now.

It seems to me that what we need right now is to hold on tight to the things that keep us together. So I think next time I'm worried and anxious, I'm going to turn off the news and walk outside into the night and look up. I'll look for the things that are still moving, strong and steady, keeping our world together. I'll think of all the other people who are looking at it too, or sleeping in the moonlight, and I'll send out a silent hello into the night.

Be well,

Heather

March 5, 2026

Lovely moon, floating through the night;

Lovely moon, share your gentle light.

Lovely moon, sing a nighttime song,

Sing as we dream and as we dream, we'll sing along.

Lovely moon, the whole world hears your call;

To your tune the oceans rise and fall;

Without your gentle light, what would we do?

We need you so, lovely moon.

photo credit: Wisconsin DNR: https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/events/52176