Celestial sighting

I see the moon,
and the moon sees me.
God bless the moon,
and God bless me.
-- Children's prayer

Monday evening, Abby and I were driving home from her violin lesson around 5:15. I was thinking of the above prayer, when suddenly, we came up over a hill and there, low in the sky, was the moon, seeing all of us, with Jupiter and Venus looking down, too.

The conjunction was so big, so bright, so beautiful, it took my breath away. I felt blessed for having seen it.

Time was, as a little girl, when I wanted to be an astronaut. Carl Sagan was my hero. Perhaps it's not so unusual, for one born just weeks after the first moon landing. That dream of going into space died down as I got older, due in no small part to my difficulty wrapping my head around the mathematics involved in physics class, as well as a sudden inability to ride anything at an amusement park when I reached my late teens. I figured, if I can't handle the teacups, I'll never handle multiple g-forces.

But for a few minutes on Monday evening, my inner astronaut gazed upwards in wonder, knowing that anyone who saw what I saw was blessed, indeed.