She's Back
The moon in her fullness greeted the day before dawn. The temperature at 52 degrees fahrenheit felt chilly. Today is Tuesday.
The cycles we experience in life, are the cycles of life itself. It seems more important these days to remember that the things that happen, the things we experience as individuals and as societies, seem to have a kind of repetition. The fact of each day arriving is one kind of reminder; the fact of celebrations that come around each year is another. Then there is the fact of life and death itself. Another cycle - and it seems the truth of "ashes to ashes, dust to (star)dust" is obvious.
Living in today's world, the realization that there is more to see and experience than ever before, has hit hard. While the news is full of disappointing updates on the state of our existence on the planet, we still have a modicum of control over what we choose to be in our daily experiences. So friends, family, the magic of relations with creatures who are of a different being, and nature itself seem to be the places where we can come back to ourselves.
Travel has made it possible for us to move beyond space and time limitations that once made it impossible for strangers to meet. In today's world, if resources and time permit, there is the possibility of being immersed in an entirely different experience of life - from new languages, cuisine, customs, and stories of how we all got here. The fact that some are able to have the experience opens eyes. The common understanding of life needing to offer safety, shelter, food, and medicine become very apparent, very real to what can be understood as living.
Technology has made it possible for those who cannot physically move around the planet to at least experience the rest of humanity in a different way. Even in the most modest of circumstances, access to the internet will open doors that were once beyond imagination. What people do when they get access is another story. But at least, there is a portal. And that portal makes no judgment, no restriction, and no comment on where one chooses to go. Here is where the fact that of limitations in freedom become clear. Unless one knows where to go, what to ask, who to believe - many things can go wrong. This is where the moon serves as a reminder.
There is something in the waxing/waning and then fullness that reminds us that we are given a lifetime of opportunities to choose how we live, to explore how we will be in this world, and to recognize that cycles give each of us another chance. Not just a second chance, but a lifetime of chances to understand, to find courage, to live more fully as the person you were meant to be. It's lovely that she returns time and again - the full moon and her light.