My favorite full moon

The full moon arrives tonight at 5:06pm EST. I was reminiscing last night about my very favorite ‘whole moon’ ever, which is what I used to call them as a child.

I was an eleven year-old girl, and we were vacationing at the beach for a week. My uncle had rented a oceanfront house for us located at the very end of the beach – a very private and exquisite place. I remember my mother, grandmother and I being taken aback and feeling like royalty.

One night, Mom let me walk out on the beach alone, barefoot in my little silk nightgown. There happened to be a full moon on that night, and the incandescent light flooded the ocean and the sand in a most beautiful way. It was the brightest night I ever do remember, and the sand appeared white as snow.

You know those blinding diamonds the sunshine makes on the water? The moon made them too; only they were of a different hue and vibrancy – matte white diamonds highlighted solely by the big white moon. As I walked along the shoreline with my nightgown flowing in the breeze, I imagined what it would be like to be a grown woman. I glanced down at my feet every so often to make sure they were still touching the wet sand, like it was a dream that I would wake up from at any time. That night, I was in front of the most beautiful ocean I’ve ever seen – to me, the beauty of that night hasn’t been matched since.

I remember thinking ‘if I could just stay here – in the moonlight on this seashore, for the rest of my life… I’d be happy’. Rather odd thinking for an eleven year-old child. As I look back though, I realize that was the place and time where my love for the ocean really started. I mean true love… and true appreciation. From then on, our seas and all of it’s inhabitants have remained just as mesmerizing to me. It’s the one thing in this world that still remains magical to me… no matter how old of a child I grow to be.

Welcome back, whole moon.