Every month we are given the gift of a full moon. Ah the full moon. What a sight. Brings the giddy out in girls and maybe boys. Not sure if giddy is a thing with boys. But! Yes a full mooned “but.” At the drop of the sun behind the western sky and the sight of a full moon a smitten girl will become giddy. Why is that? What does that golden glow in the nighttime sky bring to the table each month? Especially on warm summer nights. I have absolutely no idea. I do however have a few thoughts about a waning moon. Well of course I do. Come on it’s me! The sun and the moon both come up in the east. There are probably some wonderful moon rises hither and yon from me. There may even be places where the moon will take your breath away. Here? Oh, the fullest of moons will not only take your breath away but won’t give it back until the sun comes up the next morning. Now that’s a full-service moon. Just as surely as the moon gets bigger until that one night when it bursts and lights up the night, it will begin to come up later and later and get smaller and smaller until the night of a new moon comes around. It’s during that time there is no moonlight at all. The section of the month, where like Alice in Wonderland falling down the rabbit hole, the moon gets smaller and smaller, that’s the waning of the moon. I am not a fan of a waning moon. Seems that we, OK me. I think the knowing that something is coming, like getting a birthday present, that quickening of your heart, the widening of eyes with eagerness of a site to see is better than getting the gift. That’s the same excitement and anticipation of waiting for that perfect full moon to appear over a mountain top or up from the edge of a lake or ocean that holds the curve of the earth on the far side. The light gets brighter and warmer. The dark nighttime sky that seems to be inky black starts to lighten up and glow like an overhead light on a dimmer that is being turned up, slowly until you can almost hear a faint POP as that first top curve of the moon comes up. And! We get to see that played for a few nights every single month as it comes up later and later. Then one night it comes up to late to see and we forget to even go out and check it out. Then the waning begins again. Waning is the period of time between the end of a glorious full moon when as nights go by the surface of the moon begins to get smaller and smaller. I am not a fan of a smaller and smaller moon. Smaller is not my thing. Well unless you are talking about body size. Then I am all about smaller and smaller. Please! The moon though. I like a big ole yeller moon. It is like getting a huge present every month of the year when we are given a full moon. I hesitate to compare a full moon to a birthday present. I mean if we were to celebrate our birthday every month instead of every year I would be — well add the 4, times 2 and divide by — well I would be older than dirt! So I’ll let the moon age every month but I’m holding the line at 33, again. There is a road we travel on leading to a town about 100 miles to the north. We travel up for supplies and the trip is usually all day. Coming home after dark happens nearly each trip. A few times I have been on that road as a full moon was coming up. On the east side of the two lane highway there is a range of mountains that are not huge but big enough to rise and fall enough to let the sun and shadows play with your eyes as you drive. Then. Oh, then when driving home on a night when the moon is going to be full. The sight of the moon coming up is played over and over again. Traveling along you see that glow grow then the moon pops up and just as magically it drops down behind a ridgetop only to be delivered to your eyes again around the next curve of the road as a saddle on the mountain slides by. It’s amazing. I guess the promise of another full moon is worth the waning. Trina Machacek lives in Eureka. Her book, They Call Me Weener, is available on Amazon.com or e-mail her at itybytrina@yahoo.com to see how to get a signed copy.
