On moon wishes...
From my journal of our trip to Germany….
midnight German time, 6:00pm Eastern, 5:00pm Central, 3:00pm Pacific.
I left the shop at night having just done quite a bit of email with those winding down their day of
work back home, and I so ready for bed.
There was no moon tonight, except for the yellow plastic crescent moon that painted a glow of the
same color in the courtyard. And big, like our moon in the sky, but you can touch this one, if you
had a ladder anyways. It hangs in the courtyard of Handarbeitshaus, the German Quilt Shop and
Museum where my daughter, Emilynn and I are staying. We are in the main house, adjacent to
the quilt shop and guest houses for retreaters.
The moon has always held a special fascination for me. Not in the scientific sense, although I
enjoyed the elementary school science projects in which the moon was acted out by a ping pong
ball, the earth a basketballl, and the sun a flashlight. You could see why the earth gets dark at
night and why you see the moon "rise" and set with the sun's own habits. But that all aside, it
was the man in the moon that fascinated me and the amount of light that it could shed on the
house I grew up in, the shadows that were cast across the yard from this object so far away. I
used to be in awe of the moon following us home after a trip. How could it do that? I used to love
that it would do a slow dance across the sky everynight, always surprising me where it would end
up, though as I grew older, I realized that it always danced the same dance. I would wish upon
the moon, not a star, but the moon. I thought the wishes would have more hope of coming true,
for the moon was brighter, and bigger according to what I understood. Moon wishes. At home, I
still love to watch the moon send its shadows through the windows of the house, patterning the
grids on the floor, adding character to the old frame of the home. But here, tonight, the moon, full
and ever so bright, just two nights ago in my Minnesota yard, stands guard over Groebern,
Germany just the same. I look up at it and I still have moon wishes. Yet so many years from long
ago, and so many more miles away, my wishes have not changed so much.
The pupe, scarecrow doll, cast long ghostlike shadows over the cobblestone path directing my
gaze along the path and up the grapevines that grow alongside the stucco of the shop, or laden.
The grapevines produce the juiciest grapes, I pick three or four on every trip from the haus to the
laden. The juice spills out of the grape as it is plucked and squeezed ever so slightly, as if it had
been held in a pitcher and poured. Over the grapevines, the slate roof glowed from the light in
the courtyard and my gaze continued upward to a light feast for my eyes. The stars shown
brightly as if trying to make up for lack of the moon. Like miniature candles flickering in the sky,
set against a deep blue background, hintergrund. I turned in circles slowly trying to take it all in
at once, but it draped me like a quilt and I could not see it all at once, it went on and on beyond
what my eyes and mind could physically comprehend. And in the middle of the courtyard, I cast
my own shadow from the light of the plastic moon as I turned around and around slowly trying to
think of a way that I could save this flavor of the moment.
And, for my loved ones back home....a kiss across the moon for you. It will fall gently on your
cheek as a drop of rain, or swirl around you as a touch of wind as you end your day so many
miles away.