new moon musings

"When it's over, I want to say: all my life

I was a bride married to amazement.

I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms...

I don't want to end up simply having visited this world."

— Mary Oliver

I like to think of myself as being a 'natural woman' who has been connected to the natural world even prenatally as my parents were avid outdoor enthusiasts... And so, it is often with embarrassment that I discover something about our Mama Earth most people probably know and yet, I am astonished by....

On our vacation in Mexico at a very private casita tucked onto a hillside overlooking the Pacific Ocean, I am taking time from daily dance practice to feel in body, and being, the natural rhythms of the Earth so that my dances here will spring from that place of connection. I love observing the tides and the movement of the sun across the sky, but, I particularly love to stare into the night sky where I feel both very, very tiny as a human being, but at the same time very, very large as a spiritual being, connecting to that which is infinite and unfathomable...

After a late afternoon beach walk, our routine is to watch the sunset while having dinner and then light the chiminea (beautiful outdoor fireplaces made from clay) and lye back on lounge chairs to observe the stars appear as the night sky becomes darker.

And so on the night of the new Moon I was looking for the 'crescent' in the sky only to be told by my beloved that the Sun and the Moon are journeying together in the sky on this day - rising together and setting together, so that the Moon is not visible tonight. Really?

As embarrassed as I am to admit that I didn't know this fact, I loved finding this out about the relationship of the Sun and the Moon.

It is hard to put into words the beauty of the sparkling stars tonight set against the raven black sky that is devoid of the light of Sun or Moon... Although I don't write poetry, a muse tonight inspired this poem:

New Moon

Moon, oh Moon,

Hiding in the brilliance

Of the Sun

All day!

But tonight,

You and the Sun are bedding down together,

Submerging into the Sea.

Has the night

Ever been darker?

Have the stars

Ever been brighter?

As they are

When the Moon and the Sun

Bed down,

Together,

Into the sea?