Snow Crust Moon

Scarf hangs amidst orange leaves on branch

Tonight the full moon rises at 10:38 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time.  The calendar says so.  I do not think we’ll see it here in the northern Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

The season’s first real rain is falling from the skies, pounding on the rooftops, dripping from the eaves, drenching the naked branches of the trees, melting the snow, forming rivulets of water, flowing downhill toward the bays.

It was my first outdoor time in rain thus far for this commitment.  Day 80:  soaking rain in the evening.  I dressed warmly, complete with snow pants and scarf, but everything was sodden within fifteen minutes.  It did not feel uncomfortable.  Spruce or pine branches make lovely forts under which to watch the dripping rain for awhile.  Why do we humans so often shelter inside when it rains?

After hunkering down under pines, it’s fun to stride through the snow, up small hills and down ravines, peering around fallen trees and rain-drenched leaves.  You can shake yourself like a puppy and the rain droplets spray everywhere.

Tiny pine bent over, captured in snow

The Annishnabe, or Ojibway, call this moon “The Snow Crust Moon” or “Walk on Top of Snow Moon”.  It’s so lovely to sprint across the top of snow, especially after a long winter.  This evening the rain showers prevent effortlessly frozen crunching atop snow, but it’s so compressed one only sinks in several inches.  No snowshoes needed.

I thought of the full moon rising over this entire planet tonight.  Everywhere, people sit outdoors and watch the full white orb ascend into the heavens.  In Somalia a family sits by a campfire, perhaps eating a chicken dish called bariis, with basamiti rice flavored with cinnamon and cardamon.  A man in Ecuador tends a flock of sheep and munches patacones, fried bananas.  There is a hungry child in Iraq tonight, listless eyes following the moon’s rising, dreaming of food.  A wealthy family in Japan eats sushi on the balcony, deeply admiring the moon shadows.

Under the full moon (whether we can see it or not) we are all one people, one world.  The moon rises on all of us, rich or poor, healthy or sick, sad or happy.  The moon has often been seen as a symbol of feminine energy, bringing intuitive, deep, psychic, and subtle gifts to us. 

Because it has different phases, its energy is interpreted in different ways.  The full moon represents illumination, the unconscious becoming conscious within us.  The crescent moon suggests new beginnings, and making dreams into realities. 

Fungus glistening in snow and rain

One moon, one world.  I pray that someday we’ll be able to find harmony, to hold hands with one another, to find common ground with everyone we meet.  I pray the full moon guides us along the path to love and peace.

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