Half Moon

After a long day of mowing, weeding, cleaning, and organizing areas large and small around the ranch, the barn and most of the landscape looks well attended to. The kittens played outside all day, the horses grazed in the north pasture, and the dogs lazed in the yard keeping careful watch over all. We toiled under a mostly blue sky with cool autumn-like temperatures.

If feels like summer never actually came this year. Our weather from June on has resembled a very long spring now folding seamlessly into fall. Not that I'm complaining, this has been a perfect season with many beautiful sunny, but temperate, days followed by cool breezy nights--sounds almost too good to be true.

We fell into bed last night around 10 o'clock. Pat's snoring began almost immediately, while I laid awake reviewing the day's accomplishments. A cool breeze found its way through the open window animating the curtains into a slinky dance. This ghostly apparition set the stage for a chorus of yipping coyotes in the not too far distance. I slid out of bed not wanting to disturb Pat or the dogs, then positioned myself kneeling at the window, listening to the call of the wild. There were several voices harmonizing as I scanned the landscape looking in the direction of the call.

In the distance, a dark orange half moon sat low in the sky bidding farewell before slipping behind the Adele range. By 10:30, we'll have a moonless sky allowing millions of stars their first appearance in many weeks. The Milky Way streaks across the darkness like a veil of vapor. I often wonder why I can see the Milky Way, as if it is out there somewhere, separate from our mother planet. How do we see it if we are in it? It's like seeing the forest from the perspective of one of the trees.

I also wonder if the coyotes anticipate a moonless night, as they yip with great expectation. What does a moonless night mean to them? A better chance at hunting? Or something bigger? Perhaps their instincts inform them that change is on the way. While I may never know what lies in the mind of coyotes, or how the phases of the moon affect the various creatures that feel its pull, what I do know is that as my senses sharpen to the world around me I feel a greater calm and peace in the knowing that all is well--and so it is.