Halfway moon

Last night I noted the bright, full moon before going to sleep. Then I set my alarm for 2:30 am and groggily and fatiguedly got up for a few minutes to see the half-eclipsed moon for a few minutes. The glowing white exposed crescent obscured the red glow of the eclipsed face. I wanted to believe I saw change, but I couldn't tell if the crescent moved or if my tired eyes were simply playing tricks on me. I thought about all of the hopes and dreams pinned to the moon--the artwork about the first humans to walk on it, the way it connects people together through knowing we see the same moon from wherever we stand. I wish I could have stayed up longer to watch and think, but my body disagreed and lured me back to sleep.

activeimagine recently wrote about the discovery of a large empty space in the universe (hope you don't mind the mention), and the questions it brings up, for in many ways it was utterly unexpected. It's worth contemplating because its existence alters our understanding in profound ways.

Thinking about space and the universe always makes my mind telescope in the opposite direction as well, down to the smallest observable particles and whatever is beyond them. There are physical limits to what we are capable of observing and experiencing, but even within that framework it's amazing to consider what we still don't know and are still discovering. This holds true both individually and collectively as a society.

Women in boats

Today's Christian Science Monitor featured not one but TWO articles about women in boats today. The first was a book review of Down the Nile: Alone in a Fisherman's Skiff, by Rosemary Mahoney. The second was about a woman who paddled an outrigger canoe from Miami to Maine in an effort to spread news about the state of the world's oceans and things we need to do to take better care of them.

Ahh, yes. I miss the water, and rowing. I am inspired by women such as these.