The Full Snow Moon

The moon waxed full on Sunday afternoon, and when evening came, we sat in the living room and watched it rise over the trees. I couldn't resist the moon's whisper, so I had to go outside for some pictures. I took the camera and the monopod; sat in a chair in the yard.

I don't usually reveal the behind-the-scenes math, but I took about 85 photos, deleted more than three dozen, and out of the remaining set, ended up with about two dozen decent moon shots, of the sort you see here. Lots of clouds. Dramatic clouds, in fact. More darkness than light.

Sometimes when I am standing or sitting and watching the moon, I think back to other full moons from the past. I remembered an amazing full moon over the Quehanna Wild Area one time when we were camping out. That was the Hunter's Moon. I remember full moons over assorted beaches, but it has been far too long since I've seen the ocean.

I was also thinking about a big Thanksgiving moon back in 2015. That summer, my big sister Barb had been given a prognosis of death. But she went on to recuperate later that year, and my posting for that Thanksgiving moon was one of gratitude.

It was a mercy I did not know then that my sister would go on to put on her butterfly wings and leave this world in July of 2019. On a night like this, in the yard by myself with the full moon overhead, it still feels as though she is out there, with the big moon watching over us all.

My song is John Denver's Shanghai Breezes, with some of its lyrics included below.


It's funny how you sound as if you're right next door
When you're really half a world away
I just can't seem to find the words I'm looking for
To say the things that I want to say
I can't remember when I felt so close to you
It's almost more than I can bear
Though I seem a half a million miles from you
You are in my heart and living there
And the moon and the stars are the same ones you see
It's the same old sun up in the sky
And your voice in my ear is like heaven to me
Like the breezes here in old Shanghai