Holding Vigil

"Yes, I am a dreamer.   For a dreamer

is one who can only find his way 

by moonlight, and his punishment is  

that he sees the dawn before 

the rest of the world."

Oscar Wilde

A few weeks ago, many of us were watching the lunar eclipse and the magnificent shapes and colors of the moon.  It may have been a rare family activity or an individual space of solitude. The moon is very powerful, setting into motion vibrations not to be ignored.

Since childhood, observing the path of the moon has been a ritual of mine.   I dearly love the moon as it was often times an encouraging presence in my life.  It was a familiar constant I could turn to no matter where I happened to be.  

A dear friend once gifted me with her porch swing.  She had lived her life on this swing through 40 some foster kids and six of her own.  On many occasions we would sit on her swing, trying to solve the problems of our work.  When she retired, she had her husband install the white swing on my front porch.  It meant the world to me to come home and unexpectedly find it!

Many evenings, I would be on the porch with my journal. In between my lengthy entries, I would measure how far the moon had traveled across the sky.  By increments, the magnetizing moon floated through the stars.  Covered by an ancient quilt, I would sit in darkness on my swing.  The slow pace of the moon offered opportunity to ask endless questions and to share impossible dreams.

There were silent times, I truly felt as though I was receiving messages from the moon.  The information was not spoken nor was it heard, but internally felt. I imagined myself to be a human transmitter receiving vibrations or frequencies of energy.  

The moon shines brightly at night, as I look into the sky from my bedroom window.  Even when it is cloudy, deep in my heart I know it is there.  It waxes and wanes, following a cycle not so different from my own.  The moon is my  guiding light, an ageless mentor holding vigil in the night.