Category: Front Porch Musings

Once upon a time in the dark of the moon there was a little raccoon.  He lived down in a big warm chestnut tree with his mother who was also a raccoon.  – the opening line to the children’s book “Wait till the moon is full” by Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Garth Williams who is most famous for illustrating the Laura Ingalls books.   

“Wait till the moon is full” was a favorite of mine as a child and I think also of my mother and grandmother who read it to me – often! I can remember being in the car with my grandmother Ruth and seeing the moon – especially if it was a barely visible curve and saying the line from the book, the mother raccoon telling the little raccoon something like, “the moon is as thin as a sliver of a raccoon’s ear. Wait, Wait till the moon is full”.  I don’t remember how the other phases were described but I never see a sliver of a moon without hearing – in my grandmother’s voice – “thin as a sliver of a raccoon’s ear”.

You see, the little raccoon wanted to “go out in the night – to know an owl, to see if the moon is a rabbit, and to find out how dark is the dark.  But his mother said, “Wait, Wait till the moon is full.” So the little raccoon waited and wondered, while the moon got bigger and bigger and bigger.  Until at last, on a very special evening, the moon was full”. 

I don’t know if my fascination with being up and sometimes outside in the night is because of the book or if I loved the book because I loved the night.   My interest is not in seeing the moon or the stars up close or even knowing the constellations although I like seeing the very familiar ones: the big and little dipper, Orion’s cross, sometimes I can pick out Casseopia.  It is more like the night is a comforting presence – never the same – sometimes starless, sometimes so full of stars that it is nearly overwhelming to think of the vastness of the universe… to lie on the ground, in this dark, dark place with no artificial light to block the sky – on a clear night and see the Milky Way and the “billions and billions” of stars and know that the ones I can see are just a few of how many there are.  Well…that kind of makes the affairs of the day on planet earth seem just a bit inconsequential!

so…- what’s out there? is there an end somewhere or somewhen? and really, why are We – Here in this part of  wherever and whenever. Mysteries for another time of existence.

Tonight, the moon is full.

I spent 7 months full time in the motorhome in 2006 travelling across the U.S. and back – visiting family and friends and seeing new things.  I was in Traverse City, MI – late June – a spot where my family vacationed when I was a child and home to my Great-Aunt Betty.   The mid-west heat and humidity made me homesick for the west, the mountains and Montana and one afternoon I looked at the Montana real estate online site and saw…  1 bedroom, 1 bath house on 8 acres on a road I knew and liked….  I had a friend look at it for me – should I fly back??  She looked, called me and said I should, that it was “me” and a special piece of property.  I was on the ‘net booking a flight when I panicked – it just did not feel right.  I regrouped, phoned her and told her I would wait until I returned in late July and look – if it was right, it would be there.

Late July I arrived back in Montana and set up in an RV park near Glacier National Park.  The house was still on the market and the price had been reduced.  I had an appointment to see it within a couple days of returning.  I was sure it would be perfect – it wasn’t…  The yard was overgrown, the front porch needed help, the interior had this low ceiling, goofy light fixtures, the garage had no power to it, the woods badly needed cleanup…on and on – all I saw was stuff that needed to be done and needed money to do it.  I had been overwhelmed by my last house and really wanted something simpler…

I went away disappointed and disheartened.  I decided to look at modest homes, with a bit of yard that could be fenced and try “city” living.  I made lists from the real estate site, drove past many homes in many neighborhoods.  I looked at some.  On my birthday I was looking at a couple of houses in a subdivision – new homes, nice houses, perfect landscaping – in my price range.  I stood in one and looked out past the neighboring houses to a nice view.  All I could think about was the goofy little house in the woods. 

I spent that birthday afternoon walking through the woods and the house and felt like I had come home.  The rightness of that place – for me – turned all of the obstacles into possibilities.  Suddenly I saw the opportunity to have something I had dreamed of.  It didn’t look exactly like my “dream” but it had the possibility to be that and maybe more.

From obstacles to possibilities – it happens with people too… people who cross our path who at first it seems like there are differences or distances of some sort that make friendship or closeness seem impossible – but some connection, some intangible want or need changes things.  

I’ve learned to catch myself when everything in my path seems like an obstacle – and REALLY look – into my heart – to see if maybe, just maybe that “obstacle” is really a possibility that I don’t want to miss.