From My Kitchen

Friday, April 19, 2019

From a kitchen window I can see the sky, and when clouds are right a moon that rises above the treetops. Last night as I fixed dinner, the moon that appeared in a cloudless sky was close and beautiful, bright and spellbinding. It compelled me to stop what I was doing, grab my camera with the strongest zoom lens, and hurry outside to capture that view.

A little research told me that it’s called a “pink moon”, or otherwise the full moon of April. This full moon, like all the others was named by early Native Americans. It represents the time in spring when there are growths of pink ground phlox, or moss pink. The moon itself doesn’t change color, not even when we see a “blood moon” or a “blue moon”. Those colors that seem to be actually are reflections of atmospheric conditions affecting the moon’s appearance.

Moss pink is a flowering ground cover that grows in almost every kind of soil, blooms on for several weeks, and some of its species are invasive.

And so, the April pink moon tells us what’s growing wild and widespread. Last night’s moon isn’t yet gone. This morning, it’s at its fullest, and this evening will be visible still as Good Friday’s full moon.

Forever it seems, we’ve heard that full moons affect the behavior of living beings. It’s telling that the words lunacy and lunatic derive from “luna”, the Latin word for moon. There’s no scientific evidence that relates full moons to behavioral extremes, but it’s thought that gravitational influences may bring about social tension and disharmony.

I’m pretty sure that last evening some force larger than myself pulled me outside to capture that moon, as if its image would reveal deep meanings. Well okay, but I’m a drop in the bucket of all living beings. Everything alive feels, and in their various ways, responds to the powers of full moons.

Dear Friends, tonight look upward, and experience that incredible moon! Diana