A moon moment

Rays of orange were everywhere on the horizon.  It was 8:00 and a good 30 minutes before sunset.  A number of gray clouds were on the horizon as well shielding the sun from view, yet they couldn't contain the rays from breaking through.  But that wasn't the main attraction.

My eyes drifted up from the horizon where the sky was still blue and a few white clouds were drifting by.  There - in the middle of the sky - was a perfectly round and luminous moon.  Three-fourths of it was visible, white against azure.  It was so round I noticed.  So I gazed at it, imagining that it was just a day-trip away.  I could see what appeared as continents, but the coloring was wrong - white seas and gray land.  I couldn't take my eyes off of it for a good 5 minutes, thinking of how it hung there suspended at just 245,000 miles from the Earth in its own orbit around us.

It looked so inviting.  Before turning back to the task at hand, which would be to drive 15 minutes to my house, I couldn't help but think how luminous my life had been when it had orbited a companion planet so full of life and diversity, no two days alike, every day with the beauty of the blue atmosphere of laughter and cheer, respect and enjoyment.


Now, 4 hours later, I lay my head to rest, but my mind is stuck back at the scene of the pre-sunset minutes when the moon appeared above me to remind me of a time when...