I may have written more blog posts about the moon than another other single subject. For whatever reason, the luminous moon is the aspect of nature that most enthralls me. I realize that there is a science to when, where, and how the moon presents in the night sky, but that scientific knowledge takes nothing away from my surprise and delight of the latest moon-siting.

The past few days have been absolutely breath-taking.

I have seen the moon, cresting to her fullness and brilliant in the clear night sky. That was on Wednesday, driving home from choir practice. I drove out of my way to have a bit more moonlight time before moving indoors and out of sight. I carried radiance in my thoughts and a song in my heart. Thursday night, I was up late working and missed the moonlight altogether; I slept only a few hours and rose early for a full day of work before me. As I sat Friday morning, sipping coffee in my breakfast room, I watched the full moon lowering into the horizon at the same time the sun was rising. The morning moon was brightly glowing amid my back-yard trees as I quieted my mind for morning prayer and prepared for the day ahead. I couldn’t even close my eyes…the moon filled and held my vision and allowed my mind to clear as it slowly dissipated into the daylight and below the horizon.

Last night, driving home from a fun evening celebrating a friend’s birthday, the moon was low on its rising horizon. This “moon illusion” of changing shape and size is always a delight to see, and added to the light-hearted nature of the evening as the stress of the work week was alleviated. Even then, I thought, what a wonderful weekend of moon watching it has been. I fully expected that would be the last of my moon watching for a while, given a cloudy forecast and a busy schedule.

Today itself has been filled with much scholarly reading and commentary, as well as preparation for a big day tomorrow. In the morning, I will be addressing my own congregation at our annual meeting in my transition from Jr. to Sr. Warden, and I have prepared a report and comments for that. In the afternoon, I will be giving some words at the installation of a colleague and mentee at his new church congregation. I had just finished word-smithing those remarks when I settled back at the close of this thought-intensive day. To my surprise, at that moment the moon was precisely in my line of vision through my living room window, bursting through wispy clouds and emerging between the slats of my blinds as if checking in on me. I smiled like I had just seen my dear friend, and we spent those few minutes connecting until it was time for her to disappear into the clouds again. I settled into a restful repose and decided that a little more writing was being invited in this quiet, reflective space.

I see the moon. Perhaps I see the moon by choice, or by chance. I doubt it, though. I think it’s more likely that a part of me is hard-wired to the rhythms of the moon, and my subconscious awareness is cued in to take note of her presence. The moon reminds me that I am connected to nature. I am neither above nature, nor disconnected from it. We are in nature, we are of nature, and we are connected to all things. The natural world is all around, and coursing through our veins. We have a natural rhythm and ordered predictability. We also have serendipity, illusions, and we reflect the Light of a source beyond our own structure. We are mineral, and we are myth.

I see the moon.

On nights like this, I am convinced that the moon sees me, too…