as i have written before, living a life on the move and mostly outdoors, has put me much more in tune with the rhythms, the ebbs the waxing the waning the rising and falling of tides moon and sun. i feel so much more connected and grounded in ways i never thought possible before. and perhaps, just as i begin to take it for granted, it catches me off guard. december’s full moon was no exception.

one night, walking to dinner a with a friend, the moon lit up the mountain with such awe, no picture i took could do it justice. the next morning, walking to work there was the moon still up, preparing to set on the other side of the valley, with the sun rising from the opposite ridgeline. i was enamored, completely at a loss for words.

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around this time i was reading an article by craig childs (one of the few cis-male writers of nature and the wild that i can still appreciate and enjoy without wanting to crumple their papers and burn them in my mind). it was on traveling alone/solo. why he does it, very similar to why i do it. how watching the moon and sun rotate around us rotating around. and for some reason, i wrote this thing…i don’t know what it is. i don’t do poetry much. so i guess its just my outpouring of recent lunar experience.

i’ve learned to start my day by looking up. 
i leave my house at some point and i look to the sky
as kind of a reference point.
where is the sun
the moon
what are the colors
is there fog in the valley?
how deep is the blue?
the depth of the snow clouds
can i see across the valley
can i even see the valley?


i started looking up more 
or at least recognizing that i am
because i would see the moon in the early evening
and again in the morning
summer of the moon


this would happen to me in the pnw


in the summer


it seemed it never got dark
the sun up so early, before the roosters even
and wouldn’t set until…so late
the days so long
and now, here in the mountain town


of winter


the nights are the same and the moon the sun


i find that it gives me some kind of direction
i don’t understand it really, but i find a comfort in it


seeing the moon it all its stages tugs something deep inside me


maybe it is a kind of internal tide that is drawing something


something deep inside me out…i can feel it trying to leep


i wonder if the nocturnals of our world feel this as well


my guess


most likely


they feel it 
know it
deeper
than i ever will.


the vindication of gravity

i’m just going to leave this here like this.

i just invested in a new camera, look forward to new pics as i play with how i want to share my photo side more. i am excited to return to my photographic roots with something more than my phone. i’ve missed the way i have used a camera in the past to document and share all kinds of experiences. the next full moon, i hope to go on a snowshoe hike…its a supermoon (still don’t really know what that is supposed to mean. aren’t they all?) and a lunar eclipse.

here’s to a new year and new projects and new plans based on past lessons and challenges.