Did You See The Moon?

“Did you see the moon?!” he shouted to me.

It was an amazing celestial sight: A Beaver moon and a crisp, clear night sky. The moon was rolling across the horizon like a loose ball or an errant plastic bag wind blown among the trees.

I was taking a pre-dawn walk in the local park and snow-covered golf course when the jogger and his dog loped past. These early morning walks when almost no one is around are a bracing kickstart to my day, surrounded by the quiet magic of this small natural ecosystem amid the city. During the pandemic, they have been a tonic for my wellbeing. A part of their allure, I admit, has been the solitude with just the natural world.

As striking as the night’s dramatic beauty, though, was the encounter with the jogger. It occurred to me that it was not just that we both had witnessed the giddy spectacle of this moon brightly orbiting the world, but that we needed that witnessing to be shared. That is part of our pandemic grief, this absence of shared experience, of mutual awe.

The cosmic gyre will continue turning, indifferent to us, but we are not indifferent to this need for each other. In these brief encounters, seize the opportunity to connect, even if only momentarily.