Lunar Gratitude

I love to gaze upon the nighttime sky when soaking in my outdoor tub—especially on those clear, cold winter nights, when the stars shine brightly and steadily from the black background. Of course, whenever the Moon is in a phase that places it above me on a given night, my attention is drawn from the stars to its far brighter countenance. That happened the other night, as I contemplated it for a couple of contented hours.

There are many moons in our solar system (something over 60, at the latest tally); they have many fascinating stories and are gorgeous in NASA photos. But the Moon is our moon. It's close, it's big, it's constantly changing phase, and it's simply beautiful. I found myself feeling gratitude for our Moon that night—mostly for its loveliness shining down on me—but in the process, several of its other wonderful features came to mind. Let me recount four of them.

I will begin by an appreciation for its beauty. It is thrilling to watch at all times of the year and under all conditions: as it sets, rises, is full, is a luminous sliver, when peeking from behind skittering clouds, when I happen to spot its subtle face in daylight, or when I gaze into its patterns of craters and mares, and imagine many images beyond simply the “Man in the Moon.”

I am also grateful for the Moon's stabilizing influence on Earth's movements. Without our Moon's gravitational sway, the earth would wobble a great deal, as it orbits the Sun. That wobble would prevent Earth from having uniform seasonal changes, which would make our planet a far less habitable orb; in fact, life may never have gotten off the ground here. Our one and only natural satellite does a great deal to help keep our climate unwavering.

Third, the Moon creates a lovely lunar calendar by which we can keep in tune with nature's cycles. Every 29 days or so it completes a cycle, from full to new and back to full again. Every night you can see it in a slightly different part of the sky, in a slightly different phase—slowly circling us every month. The Moon's recurrent period doesn't zip by as fast as the Sun's daily cycle, nor as slow as the year's passing. It's a nice intermediate pace. Its varying phases through the month help me keep track of time. In fact, the Latin root of the word Moon is mensis, which also leads to menstruum, meaning “menses.” Many women's menstrual cycle is in sync with the Moon. In turn, those Latin words derive from another Latin word, metiri, which means “to measure.” Aha! We're back to the Moon as a time keeper!

Finally, the moon's size and distance from us makes its apparent size almost exactly the same as the Sun, and from time to time they play peekaboo and we get the spectacular result of either a lunar or a solar eclipse. It's one of the most thrilling celestial events we get to witness. Even people who rush about their urban business, rarely looking up at the sky, will pause to enjoy an eclipse.

I know that if I could live on some other planet of our solar system, I could watch some pretty spectacular lunar events there, but this planet is my home and I feel blessed to have been gifted with the lunar orb we've got. You go, Moon!