“I welcome joy and wonder back into my life.â€

This is the thought that came into my mind at 3am as I sat out on our back deck, wrapped in my dressing gown looking up at the moon.

Closing my eyes, taking a deep breath and exhaling fully I felt a sense of immediate relief.

I am back.

I wondered to myself as I sat there how many other people might there be, at this very moment sitting out on their back decks looking up at the sky and feeling something similar.

As the thoughts wandered through my mind I could imagine how one could feel so overtaken by the moment that they could shed their clothes and in an attempt to soak up every bit of the magic of that moonlight, lay naked under that beautiful light.

How crazy would that seem to most, but not to me.

There is something about the moons light that is so quietly powerful that it almost IS like somebody is casting a spell upon you.

No wonder full moons are said to invoke the lunacy in man, and beasts alike.

I think it’s that we just don’t know what to DO with that energy – when we really still ourselves and allow it to be taken IN.

For me, on this early morning it has filled me with joy and a certain sense of peace.

“Moon kissed leaves gently dancing in the breezeâ€

Seductively, almost undulating in their dance.

Shimmering, like tiny diamonds - that light. Sprinkled in the tree tops.

And funny too looking up at the tree’s surrounding my backyard. It’s like they are all alive – of course they are ALIVE, but alive in a “presence†sense and “with meâ€.

I don’t ever feel alone when there are tree’s, which is why there is something extra added to the experience of sitting under a full moon when you are in a place where there ARE no tree’s.

Like in the desert.

Just you, the earth beneath your feet and the moon above.

Alone with the moon.

Now that is something special.

Not that I mind the company of trees.

I have missed THIS.

Why did I ever stop? Where did it GO, that magic, that allowing IN of the magic.

Asking for it…looking for it.

Basking in it.

I felt it the other day too.

Walking down the town street and the wind was whipping up a fury, tearing the leaves from the tree’s and scattering them across the road, reminding me that yes, Autumn is here…. And that Winter (ahh bliss) is coming.

I found myself in a midst of fluttering leaves, hair blowing crazily about and in passing a group of people I heard a woman say “Oh I hate this!†– the wind.

To which I answered her in my head.

“I don’t. I love it! Can’t you feel the energy in the wind? FEEL it touching you. Caressing your skin. Reminding your senses that you are alive and part of something far greater than just yourself?â€

Silly woman…. (smiling)

Back on my deck….I was reminded of a time a few years ago when we were camped by the ocean on the edge of a small cliff.

So close to the beach that all night long you could hear the crashing and pounding of the waves.

What a beautiful sound. Endless. Relentless. Never ceasing. (Doesn’t the sea get tired?)

I remember then thinking to myself, again under the spell of magic moonlight, how insignificant “all this†was.

Me. My world. My thoughts.

How many other people had sat there too and just listened.

Now gone but there I was, as will be so many more in that very same place.

Only the endless rhythm of those pounding waves will remain.

Lets hope anyway.

It is a beautiful thing to just sit and be still.

Close your eyes and just BE.

I think I will make time for myself more often, for these moments.

To welcome back all that has been missing for so long.

Silly woman.