“Nations, like stars, are entitled to eclipse.  All is well, provided the light returns and the eclipse does not become endless night.  Dawn and resurrection are synonymous.  The reappearance of the light is the same as the survival of the soul.”

– Victor Hugo

And people, like nations, also have their dark times.  What matters is that the faithful Light returns to dispel the darkness.

I nearly decided that sleep was more important; but at the last minute I decided that I couldn’t wait another four-hundred years to see a total eclipse of the moon at Solstice.  Being a practical sort of person — the kind who needs to function during daylight hours — I decided that a 3:15AM alarm was in order, and I tucked myself into bed.  Being the sort of person who could tell you, blindfolded, that the moon is full — just by the wild energy it brings to the world — I tossed and turned and willed myself to sleep until the alarm clock rang and liberated me from my bed.  I threw on my sweats, right over my nightgown, and slipped on my unlaced sneakers.  Out I ventured into the still, cold night whispering, “okay…where are you?” There in the western sky hung the moon — the Long Night’s Moon of December, named for the season when nights are long and for its long trip across the sky as the sun hangs low and allows more time above the horizon for the moon.

The red-orange glow of the eclipsed moon soft-lit the sky.  The daytime clouds that had threatened to block the spectacle had parted like the curtain at the start of a play; and at center stage sat the silent moon, glowing valiantly behind the earth’s shadow.  The stars seemed to shine brighter than usual in an attempt to pick up her slack.  Even our busy street lay silent in that time between late night and early morning; and I let my eyes open my ears to the music of the night.  The deep hum of the shadowed moon provided the background, and the twinkling stars danced the melody of a song only heard once in four-hundred years; and I was thankful that I had the chance to watch and listen and join in the dance.  Only when the cold wind called me back to awareness did I leave my spot among the stars and take my cold body back to the warmth of my bed.

There I dreamed of the times when my soul had lay hidden in the shadows.  I dreamed of the people who, like the stars, had danced their dance of light around me and reassured me that the darkness never lasts.  The wild energy that earlier had held me captive and restless now subsided at the close of the dance and allowed me the bliss of sleep, punctuated with dreams of Light.  Before I knew it, the alarm clock rang again.  This time it called me out of my dreams and into the beginning of a new day.  I ran outside and looked to the sky.  Moving toward the western horizon, the Long Night’s Moon shone brightly, its time in the shadows ended by the return of the Light.

** My thanks to Darin Mazepa for the beautiful shot of the lunar eclipse.