Moonrise

I walked in the door from a meeting tonight only to have Bullet demand that I take him out for his nightly potty break.

Because I still had my shoes on and because it feels great outside, I decided to take the little guy for a full walk tonight.

Just as we were returning home, I realized that I’d forgotten to check the mail. When I turned around to walk back to the mailbox, I was struck by a brilliant orange moon peaking over the trees at the end of the street.

I said to myself, “Wow. That wasn’t there just a few minutes ago.”

Then I proceeded to stand at the bottom of my driveway and watch the most beautiful moonrise I had ever seen.

“That is so beautiful, God,” I kept saying. “And to think that I wouldn’t have seen it had I not turned back.”

Sometimes, I suppose, we need to move forward and not look back because the pictures that we see of Egypt are deceptively beautiful and can hold us back.

But sometimes, just maybe, it’s okay to look back. Because, sometimes, just maybe, looking back helps us see something beautiful that we didn’t know was there waiting to peak above the horizon.

The rabbit in the moon is very clear tonight.

Thank you, God, for its beauty. And thank you for the reminder of your presence tonight…and every night. Amen.

---

Moonrise (by D.H. Lawrence)
And who has seen the moon, who has not seen
Her rise from out the chamber of the deep,
Flushed and grand and naked, as from the chamber
Of finished bridegroom, seen her rise and throw
Confession of delight upon the wave,
Littering the waves with her own superscription
Of bliss, till all her lambent beauty shakes towards us
Spread out and known at last, and we are sure
That beauty is a thing beyond the grave,
That perfect, bright experience never falls
To nothingness, and time will dim the moon
Sooner than our full consummation here
In this odd life will tarnish or pass away.