{"id":42081,"date":"2011-03-20T12:14:47","date_gmt":"2011-03-20T17:14:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/horizonsmagazine.com\/blog\/?p=42081"},"modified":"2015-07-21T12:15:36","modified_gmt":"2015-07-21T17:15:36","slug":"i-spent-full-moon-night-out-under-the-stars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/horizonsmagazine.com\/blog\/i-spent-full-moon-night-out-under-the-stars\/","title":{"rendered":"I spent full moon night out under the stars"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last night\u2019s full moon was dubbed a Supermoon<\/a>, thanks to a fluke of orbital mechanics that brought the moon closer to Earth than that it has been in more than 18 years.\u00a0 It really did look bigger.\u00a0 I was just completing final layout on the April Horizons Magazine and really wanted to get down to the beach to watch the moon rise, but I just could not make myself get in motion to leave the property.\u00a0 This is when I appreciate my humble jungle here, where I have room to roam and explore and don\u2019t have to dress to go out and be prepared to socialize.\u00a0 Don\u2019t get me wrong, I am as gregarious as they come, but I talk to a lot of people during the course of a day.\u00a0 At the end of the day, I am usually talked out and don\u2019t want to hear another voice, especially my own.\u00a0 So when I can escape into the silence of my oak woods under the light of the full moon, I jump at the chance.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n

It took me a long while to wind down last night.\u00a0 I\u2019d finished the April magazine in the afternoon and then played on Facebook for awhile.\u00a0 I could see some friends would be at House of Joe listening to music, but I wanted to hear natural sounds and be under the stars and the full moon.\u00a0\u00a0 I was going to take my guitar outside with me and sit at the firepit playing around with it, then realized the neighbors would hear that.\u00a0 And I wanted to be invisible.<\/p>\n

I walked around the yard collecting small twigs and sticks to throw on the kindling pile.\u00a0 I picked up a line of stepping stones that were covered with winter leaf fall, and placed them back down on top of the leaves.\u00a0 The full moon was just breaking over the east tree line about 9:30pm and it lit up the yard.\u00a0 I made it into the firepit area about 10pm.<\/p>\n

In the spirit of remaining invisible I didn\u2019t light a fire, I just sat and watched the moon as it began to peek through the oak canopy.\u00a0 I watched the nightly parade down the trails of the opposum, the raccoons and armadillos.\u00a0 It looks like 3 baby raccoons and 4 baby armadillos.\u00a0 Ihe opposum is always alone, she\u2019s solitary and nocturnal.\u00a0 I could hear the hootie owl in the oak hammock next door.<\/p>\n

I decided I wanted to sleep outside.\u00a0 I knew the temp would drop to the mid 50\u2032s and it was easy enough to fashion a quick lean-to with a tarp so I didn\u2019t have to set a tent up.\u00a0 I made a little raised platform, so I wouldn\u2019t be disturbed by any snakes slithering by.\u00a0 I brought out my pillow and blankets and settled in for the night.<\/p>\n

The woods really come alive at night.\u00a0 All night long there are critters making their way up and down the trails.\u00a0 Sometimes you can hear the crickets stop, and everyone looks and listens to see who is the new intruder on the scene.\u00a0 Sleep happens in spurts and I follow the moon on her journey across the night sky.<\/p>\n

I wake up before dawn as the birds begin singing to the light.\u00a0 I see a squirrel on a branch 2 feet above me, chewing an acorn and watching me.\u00a0 I can see she\u2019s a nursing mama.\u00a0 Her mate scampers down the branch, she tosses the acorn and the chase is on.<\/p>\n

I decide to make\u00a0 a small fire and heat water for hot tea, which I brew with a handful of fresh mulberries and drink as I watch the daybreak.\u00a0 I can hear the birds in the courtyard and the squirrels running through the trees and I feel like I live in a Disney movie.\u00a0\u00a0 It feels cozy to sit outside in the wild natural morning and watch the neighborhood wake up this way.\u00a0 This is what it means to be in the world but not of it, to live a world apart.<\/p>\n

I wandered around for an hour, watering the loquat seedlings.\u00a0 I planted a new line of them as a privacy fence and they are all coming up as planned.\u00a0 I should have done this 30 years ago.\u00a0 Well, my place is wooded and hidden enough as it is.\u00a0 Who knows, while I may enjoy being a solitary hermit now, maybe by the time I\u2019m 80 or 90 I\u2019ll wish for company.<\/p>\n

For now, that\u2019s one thing that keeps me from being more social, the fact that I have such a good time alone doing quiet things.\u00a0\u00a0 And after a long day of work and talking and voices, sometimes it would be nice to have someone to be alone in the silence with.\u00a0 Just kind of watching the moon together and sipping hot tea and loving life.<\/p>\n

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