Moonset

I have never seen a moonset until this morning.

Opening the window to greet the day when - gasp - the pink sky was filled with the full moon. 

I laughed out loud at my own surprise. I am not sure what direction I was facing but I definitely never expected to see the moon there, in the morning! 

I do not understand orbits or revolutions, I do not know why sometimes the moon is halfway in the sky at noon and other times rises above the sea at dusk. But sometimes the not knowing is the most beautiful part of it all, because then we are open to surprises. 

As the moon slowly set over the hills, glowing in a gold-pink from the sunrise opposite, I wondered who else was watching this phenomenon. Who else noticed the moon was not where we thought she would be? Who else stopped in their tracks and stood watching, pausing their morning for this sacred moment? And, who out there actually knew this would happen, and prepared camera and blanket, to document the colorful moonset?

I wondered about the Iber peoples, when they first settled in this area. Did they have moon rituals? Did they have a vantage point to watch the first full moon after the solstice? Did they love it the way I love it?

I feel as though my world has flipped upside down. Which, of course, it has -- the moon never sets at all, but we revolve around and around. But it also feels as though my figurative world has turned. A new mystery met me this morning. A new passion arose. A new vantage point to see the world: the moonset in the morning. 

For the past several years, on every full moon I set an intention of something to leave behind and something to live into. Perhaps this revolution, I leave behind expectation and live into awe.