Last night, when the house got to be a little too much for me, I did what I’m learning to do, go out for a short walk alone. There was a beautiful halo around the moon. I couldn’t capture it on my camera, but the image to the right is close. Jupiter was actually inside the halo, very bright.
The line “There’s a ring around the moon tonight, and a chill in the air” came to me, because it fit the scene perfectly. That the opening to the song “In The Passage” by Dan Fogelberg. I hadn’t listened to it in years, but it came right back from that image. The refrain goes:
In the passage from the cradle to the grave, We are born, madly dancing, Rushing headlong through the crashing of the days, We run on and on without a backwards glance
She certainly madly danced through her days, but she did look backwards often. She did it the way a skater does before a jump, getting her bearings to make sure she was pointed in the right direction to land it. Then she closed her eyes and leapt forward.
That’s the trick I need to learn from her this year. There is no going back to the past, but it is always there as a reference point for us. Those memories can help us chart a course on the journey ahead, and give us the courage to risk the next leap.
An Unwelcome Journey 
Makes me think of a song by Greg Brown, which might be fitting here:
“Ring around the Moon”
We don’t know when we came; you know it’s been so long,
Everything is the same; so let’s do one more song.
Ring around the moon; long, long time ’til day,
Play me one more tune; please don’t go away.
You be the mandolin; I’ll be the steel guitar,
You dance out and in; I’ll cry up so far.
Long, long time ’til day,
Play me one more tune; please don’t go away.
Everybody’s been alone, been to the parade,
Tryin’ to find the bones of this masquerade.
And there’s a ring around the moon; long, long time ’til day,
Play me one more tune; please don’t go away.
Love she always passes lightly and away,
Like a lioness gets restless when she comes to stay.
And there’s a ring around the moon; long, long time ’til day,
Play me one more tune; please don’t go away.
Pickin’ on the strings, tapping of your feet,
Well, these are age-old things, but who can say how sweet.
When there’s a ring around the moon; long, long time ’til day,
Play me one more tune; please don’t go away.
————
Lots of love to you.
–Michele
Ouch. Very fitting indeed. It plays into the piece I’m working on now…
There is something very powerful in that image of the ring around the moon, and the time of year it comes to us.