The biggest super moon for awhile, and I missed it. Yes, the extreme super moon of 2013 was right overhead, and I missed it. They say I’ll have to wait until August 2014 before I can indulge in a similar view.
I’d planned to kick off summer in fine style with that supernova Strawberry Moon. But, even the first day of summer came and went before I could blink an eye. It whirled on by, like the quicksilver strawberry picking season this year.
Honestly, I had every intention of slowing down, relaxing my always-swirling mind, and going with the flow of the seasons. This summer would be a wonderful time to set that intention, I figured. Maybe I should have penciled in a date with myself on the calendar for the first day of summer. For every good intention, it seems that something always turns up to thwart my plans.
I’ve heard that some people do schedule in a day for themselves…a day when they take no phone calls, stay off the internet, do no networking—even leave home so that the domestic scene is off the radar.
I like the idea of creating a mini-retreat for myself. Last year I attended two week-long workshops on creativity, dream work and intuition. So, why can’t I follow my own cues to create a retreat for myself?
Perhaps the only way to experience more of what you wish to do or learn is to share it with others. Learn by teaching. Maybe it’s easier to set the intention or plan a schedule if it involves other people – especially if you don’t seem to muster up the self-discipline to carry on by yourself.
When life interferes, plan your life around your dreams? So you want to write more, enjoy music more, try out painting or drawing, meditate, read, do that yoga you keep saying you’ll do. When the calendar keeps turning up a new season, and you still haven’t managed to create what you want, maybe the dream is to set the intention to help others with their own playground of dreams.
As for this summer solstice window of moontime, I caught a faint glimpse through the trees in the overcast midnight sky. It was more like a glow, and all I wanted to do was sleep. Perhaps that’s what I need. Lots of sleep and mid-summer nights of dreams.
Some notes I uncovered recently (from – oh, my — summer 2004) reminded me of the fleeting seasons – a topic I seem to need to write about for awhile.
I was enjoying a Blue Moon at the time, in July. We were coming home from visiting my mom, who was being cared for by my brother and family. The refreshingly steamy night air felt magically buoyant, rather than sultry, as we drove along.
At first the moon showed like a hazy giant copper plate, soft and dusky — slipping up over the horizon ever so gently, until it appeared in mid-summer night sky as a brilliant orb of transforming light, its familiar face so visible. How do you describe the full moon on such a night? Once home, its brightness lit up the landscape, enough for us to see to walk across the yard, to catch the sounds of the neighbor’s party and the syncopated tunes drifting through the air.
The music’s loudness didn’t even bother me, as it might have normally. Instead of interfering with the tranquility of the moment, it seemed to elevate it into a higher vibration. I became aware while walking, that the moonlight shone through the leaves of the trees like a spotlight on my turquoise tee, reflecting their lacy pattern.
Mesmerizing …. A gentle midsummer night’s dream…as the bard must have meant. “I wish I could describe it,” I’d written — “to be transformed by the moon’s reflection.”
I began to wonder, after that, if I could imagine how the moon might appear to loved ones scattered at different locations across the country. It’s comforting to know that somewhere out there they might be viewing that same reflection. I often like to picture how the moon would look from the scenery wherever in the world they are. It makes me feel closer to them in my heart.
While I may not have experienced this year’s Strawberry Moon with the same fervor as that Blue Moon long ago, I sense that I’ve been under its subtle influence. Farmers know these things. Meteorologists, psychologists, physicists, astrologists – as well as the medical community – are beginning to merge on this topic, it seems to me, with the consensus being that the ancients, and the bard, were right all along.
So, goodnight Strawberry Moon. Under your subtle influence, seen or unseen, I’ll continue to dream on mid-summer nights, or day dreaming afternoons. I’ll endeavor to slow down, relax more, flow more–and savor this beautiful season, nurturing my plans and dreams.
Magically magnificent moon links:
Happy supermoon celebration on NBC News
Bigger and brighter supermoon lights up night sky
Weather Channel extreme super moon of 2013
Supermoon alongside Lincoln Memorial by Jim Knapp
