Notes on a Supermoon
Today, I am told, is a supermoon.
There are astrological interpretations of this, though I am not as interested in those. Instead, I am interested in the literal brightness of this celestial body — the way that she is undeniable in her push and pull. I am interested in witnessing such marvel, and doing so with loved ones beside me.
I am interested in the voice of my mother, quiet in the night, as we stand under its glow, and she says, this is the same moon that someone else might be looking at, right now, in Iran.
I am interested in the scope of these considerations; how we, undeniably, crucially human, have this same thought, so frequently, and the world over.
I am interested in the rhythm this provides, and the gentle net it creates. No matter your position on this spinning globe, you bear witness to this moon — to her expansion and contraction, every month.
I am interested, also, in my own push and pull. I have long found spring to be a time of beauty and contradiction — as things bloom, but the frosts remain; as we walk into the fullness of summer — but not quite. Spring is a time of vibrating energy, of buzz, of almost.
This I find laced through my own bones; I crave things which have not yet occurred, at the same time as I luxuriate in the wafting scent of blossom and flower. There is a both-direction pull, a waxing-and-waning that I feel in this season, and, somehow, in the arc of the moon, too.
And also, societally. We have faced such deep injustices as a nation — many more than others — and continue to. There is grief and terror, sadness and anger. There is also joy, and the hope for a brighter summer, and some relief ahead. In the same day, I rage about politics, feel deep joy in seeing my mother for the first time in a year and a half, and laugh at the round face of my friend’s newborn.
To be human is to hold all of these, just as we witness the continuous motion of our beloved moon: sometimes bright. Sometimes dark. Always, in one way or another, both.
And so it comes back to this: a glance upward, at this supermoon. A reminder of our continuous natures, our cyclical beings. A reminder that we will all shift and pass and change, in our rhythms, in time.
