Tonight makes me grateful that my parents don’t have a garage.
If they did, I would have missed seeing this particular nighttime; and it was a good one.
Tonight is full of stars in the sky and hills that dip and rise, dip and rise, like the earth itself is breathing.
Tonight is a moon that colors the snow in a kind of blue; that bounces off its idea of luminescence until the very ground agrees with it and starts to shine too. And pretty soon they’re having a conversation, The Moon and The Ground. And I’ve snuck up right in the middle of it, and I wonder who started what, because here I am, suddenly basking in their incandescence. And whenever The Ground starts complaining just a little bit about having to be the one who’s doing all the reflecting, The Moon cuts him off with a glance in the general direction of The Sun.
Enough said.
Because suddenly The Ground realizes that he’s in good company.
And in the midst of all this reflecting I join in, because how can I not?
And I think about how the earth is filled with beauty. How it’s quiet, but like the best kind of person, says so much with its presence and the way it surrounds you whether you act like you need it or not.
And I think about how I am glad to be alive and how there was a time when I wasn’t . And how, though that itself was bad enough, what really terrified me was the thought that I never would be again.
But life, it’s bright.
Just like tonight is bright.
It’s the country’s best impression of the city’s glow. And my neighbor’s hill is turned on like neon, but without that buzz that makes you wonder if your ears are ringing.
And I can’t be sure, but maybe I am turned on like neon too right now. Turned on to life. Feeling like there could be some space for something good to happen again.
Feeling like I am glad that I didn’t miss tonight.
Moon is really bright here in CA too, which is pretty awesome if you think about it, 3000 miles away. It casts a shadow. How cool is that?
well, I am impressed that you know how many miles away you are in CA. I would have just said ‘a lot!’ And yeah, it’s like that line from The Great American Tale: And even though I know how very far apart we are, it helps to think we might be wishing underneath the same bright star…
And “there are no cats in America and the streets are paved with cheese” seems very apt now too.
and how about “let’s make music together; let’s make sweet harmony” just for the heck of it!
Beautiful. Your description that is. Makes me wish I had scene it.
I never noticed that scene and seen were homonyms until I read this. Interesting… wonder if the words are actually related?
What an artist God is!
it certainly made me pause tonight.
I can’t believe I just typed “wish I had ‘scene’ it.” That is just fantastic.
Ha, Nina! ‘Scene it’ is awesome. And a really fun game–have you ever played it??
beautiful , Jess..i love the way that you write..and i really am so glad that you are alive and that you could take in the beauty of last night..there’s much more beauty coming your way, i know it:)
thanks, sarah…I know you are glad I am alive, I can feel it…thank you for that, too:)
I love this post, Jess…not just the imagery, but the hopefulness that exudes from it. And I like thinking of you “turned on like neon”, too, even with the buzzing, because it sounds like you are crackling with life…definitely not how you would have described yourself not so very long ago. Bless you.
thanks, Kathie. I certainly appreciate feeling some hope these days:)
Jess – really inspiring vision of the moon and earth.
Um, “let’s make music together” was from “all dogs go to heaven” not “American tale”. Lol.
I know it’s from All dogs go to Heaven! We hated that movie, which is why I thought it’d be funny to throw it in there too…!
What??? “We hated All dogs go to heaven?” I LOVE that movie! First Pete’s Dragon and now this!