Midnight Summer Moon

Philadelphia

Last night I woke a little after midnight and couldn't go back to sleep. Usually, when that happens, I force myself to stay in bed and do some kind of meditation to quiet my mind. That didn't work. I watched a Willie Nelson special on PBS. Willie had some words of wisdom, but they didn't put me to sleep. So I got out of bed and as I sat up, the moonlight was streaming through my bedroom windows, casting crosshatch shadows on the floor from the window mullions.

I realized that I ached from my workout and running regimen. Maybe that was keeping me awake. How about a bath? In my bathroom, there are three sets of windows that faced the big moon. I pulled up the shade. The white light and a lone votive light illuminated the room. I soaked, thinking about "things": my writing project, the new baby, the upcoming family gathering in Nantucket and 35th birthday of my youngest son, my Fall writing class, potential consulting positions, the New York Marathon. And then I just looked up at that moonlight and stopped ruminating.

I dressed and went downstairs for some water. The moonlight was too distracting, though. So, I went out onto the deck overlooking the creek. It was utterly silent. No car sounds. No gurgling brook sounds. Not even a cicada.

Sitting there on the deck steps, surrounded by the woods, I felt an overwhelming calm. Just a fleeting gift, I suppose. But I try not to take those things for granted.

Eventually, I fell back to sleep reading a book entitled "Solving Tough Problems" by Adam Kahane. But this morning, I
remembered the calm... and the quiet and that big summer moon in the middle of the night.

M.C.