Stories from my little corner of the world, the South. Some are from the present, some from the past...but all are from my heart.

They reflect my thoughts and views, my musing about the world, and each carries with it a bit of my heart
and soul.

Friday, January 25, 2013

A Moon Memory




So the Boyz and I went for our nightly walk a little while ago, and the growing moon beamed down on us like a doting parent. I felt bathed in it's loving silvery gold patina, as was the world around us.

 The moon has no favorites when it's growing, it's generosity of light spills onto everything on the Earth below without judgement. Shadows form from its brightness, and my youngest small dog loomed large on the sidewalk ahead of me, puffed up in size by the moon's glow.

  I love these night time walks, and though I often complain, quite bitterly, about the changing of the time that brings with it early darkness...I have to admit the night walks are my favorite time of the day.  

 Across the road from our street is a wooded area, a veritable oasis in the middle of this small city, where trees grow unharmed, and tiny wild animals and bird find homes. Sometimes, like tonight, I can hear the hushed chattering of nervous birds settling down for an evening's rest, or in the summer the single croak of a bullfrog on the pond's edge. I treasure this oasis, it will never be destroyed for I learned a few years ago to belongs to the small neighborhood it sits beside. Some of the neighbors, in their wisdom, recognized the value of its beauty and the safe haven it offers those furry and winged residents, and deeded this small area to the Audobon Society. I like that I can walk here at night on the sidewalk and have some small sanctuary of nature so close to my front door. It reminds me of home.

 On our way back, as I looked up at the once large moon, now high above me and small as a button I am reminded how I used to love to stare up at this same moon as a child. This mythical, magical satellite rotating around us has been a focal point of so many humans for centuries. The legends created around its waxing and waning has been told over thousands of years to wide-eyed children who gazed solemnly at it in awe. 


 I can remember doing the same, taking an old bedspread to throw across the hood of my daddy's work truck and lay back to stare at it and the stars around it. On the nearly full moon the backdrop of  sky is a muted royal blue canvas, and the stars twinkling are like silver glitter that has been scatterred upon it. On occasion I was lucky enough to see a shooting star, tossing my childish wishes upon it to fly through the sky and collide with the Earth in some distant place. No light pollution to drown out the stars or the moon, not there in Council, just the inky jet blue night with a moon as bright the headlight of the trains that passed by regularly. 


 Walking just now brought back these memories and my Muse whispered in my ear on the way home...go write it down. Go put these memories into words that will be here for you later, or for your friends or family. They too have gazed upon a brightly lit moon and had these same experiences. 


Put it down for them as well, record this common bond of human experience for anyone who reads it might be able to say: "Oh, I've done that too!" Perhaps for them  it might evoke some wonderful memory as well, still there in their brain but long buried in the hustle-bustle life we lead in the 21st century.

 So here it is, and if you read it tonight, or in the next couple of nights...go outside, leave your television for a while, and gaze up at that gorgeous moon. 


 I promise, it will be smiling down on you, white gold light that will remind you of the child you once were.


Rose S. Williams-Southernstoryteller©2013

January 25th, 2013

7 comments:

  1. It felt good to write again...for so long so much of what I had to write was about my grief. But I had this dream the other night, about Daddy, and how he liked for me to read him one of my columns when I wrote for the paper, especially when I wrote about him and Fargo or Council and the forests. And I realized, it was time to try and write again...about the things and places I love.
    Thank you for the inspiration you lend with your own writing and especially with your friendship <3

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  2. Rose, this was beautiful. I love walking at night too. When I lived in Texas, far out and away from light pollution, I would turn around to find the horses, then the goats trailing me. The dogs ran ahead or stayed beside.

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    1. Thank you so much!!! I appreciate you reading :) There's something magical about being outside in the dark, to me at least. I grew up WAAAAYYYY out in the country so I never grew up knowing the fear of being outside because someone might hurt me. It has stayed with me all my life, even now living in the city, I love to sit out on my screened in back porch with the candles lit and listen to the night sounds. Or on the patio with a little fire in my chiminea...just staring up at the night sky and remembering :) Thanks again!

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  3. Wow ... what a delight. You have written such beautiful words. They have been a little evening treat. Thank you.

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    1. Aww Liz, thank you my sister in spirit and in writing :) You made me smile so big with those words.

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  4. This is why I read what you write and this is why you write it.

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    1. Yes sir, and thank you for reminding me why I need to write...your constant dedication the craft is something I greatly admire.

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