The Art of Moon Bathing

A journey comes full circle, in the light of the moon.

When I was a kid growing up in rural America, I remember long car rides home after dark, jostling gently in the backseat with my sisters, watching the moon follow us all the way home to the farm where we lived. The moonlight was crystalline and stunningly bright; its light draping over the deep bluish-green leaves of cornfields or shimmering a path to the horizon over prairies full of snow.

On the open farmlands where I spent my youth, the moon was a cyclical and reassuring presence, a source of both wonder and steadfastness. I remember watching clouds pass over the face of the moon while my toes rested in the cool grass, or the way unfettered moonlight cast silvery shadows about my childhood bedroom. This rhythm quietly shaped the months and then years that brought me into adulthood.

I eventually left these little moonlit acres in the country and lived a decade and then some in cities and apartments, experiencing the many delights of urban existence — and also the discomfort which comes with always feeling a little bit out of place, out of my place.

It wasn’t until a few years ago that I began to piece this feeling of place back together for myself. After years of living in the city, and planning weekend getaways to the rural places…