Sunday 11 October 2009

The Moon

They say (whoever they are) that if you want to be inspired be with inspirational people. I find that if you look for inspiration its there, but then as a child I was told to "Stop being such a bloody Pollyanna!"

I can't always do it and spend time in an Eeyore place, nothing a swift kick up the metaphorical or real arse can't shift, most effective if it comes from myself.

I can gaze at a piece of art work and experience that shift inside somewhere, a connection with the artist or something greater, but its not usually something visual that moves me. Not man made visual anyway. It is usually sound, often music and lyrics at times which can plumb the depths or boost me to highs that are unsustainable but long in the memory and deep in the heart.

Sometimes I open my eyes properly and can't believe I have been focused on such a small horizon, and a season has turned. So if it is visual its Nature that is providing it. Recently someone in my family accused me of getting excited by small things. Too right!! I had just been raving about how AMAZING the moon looked in the sky over the sea. Every time I see this sight, wherever I am in the world it still sets off a reaction in me I can't put into words, still a sense of wonder, sense of WOW, water moved by something so far away, just as I am moved, reassured by its presence. It is a thrill, I am excited by something so timeless in the human scheme of things. Walking or driving by moonlight has a special feeling, a sense of belonging that there it is up above us, all of us. In the past the reassurance that someone I love far away in a different time zone, will look up at the same moon, even if the stars allotted are different. Reassuring, powerful, changeable, known and mysterious. The moon to me is female. I like the night, I easily turn nocturnal and there is this glowing presence travelling with us through space on a journey beyond the mere mortal, radiating its blue luminous glow for all.

Last week I was trying to capture something of the wonder of a full moon at dusk over the valley behind my house, all I had to hand was a disposable camera, and I was trying to take photographs, a man appeared with an absolutely gorgeous black Labrador, and asked me what I was doing so I explained and suggested he look at the moon and he said, "oh that, haven't you seen that before!" I said, "no, before it was another day, another time." He looked at me as if I was mad. Oh well.

So this week I wondered how I felt about NASA bombing the moon. I am intrigued about the purpose and the exciting possibilities this could help arise AND somewhere I felt sad about the violence of it. NASA site is full of interesting information and I have anthropomorphised a small planet... http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LCROSS/overview/index.html
"Earth's closest neighbour is holding a secret..." - not just me then..

Mental Conflict I feel!