Pink Moon

I saw it written and I saw it say. Pink moon is on its way. - Nick Drake

I inherited my love of nature from my mother. She had a sense of childlike wonder and would be the first to notice the signs of seasons changing. I was never chided for coming home dirty from making mudpies or bringing home jars of bugs to watch, always careful to poke holes in the lid and let them go the next day.

My memories of her are filled with the sights and sounds of Mother Earth. The explosion of pink cherry blossoms in Japan, the freshness of plumerias I picked for her in Hawaii. She always stopped to look at rainbows and loved sleeping to the sound of rain.

I think of our weekend routine of her packing a cooler of snacks and taking my brother Lane and I to Waikiki Beach. We would leave in the morning and stay until the sun came down. We would chase crabs and boogie board all day, coming back with lungs full of salty beach air and sandy feet. She found peace at the ocean watching the waves and smiling at us from her chair.

Whenever she would go on a trip, the first thing she noticed was the trees. She loved the big oaks covered with Spanish moss in Savannah and the hazy canopy of the Blue Ridge Mountains. She would whisper to me that she could feel her Catawba Indian blood in her veins when she and my dad drove there.

After moving all over the world as a military wife, she put down her own roots in Augusta, Georgia. She loved having a home of her own and a place for her family to come visit. She would get so excited about the dogwoods and azaleas blooming in the spring.

She had a superstitious side and always paid attention to the cycles of the moon. She was convinced that hair and nails grew faster around the full moon so we always had to get haircuts directly after. In college she would always call me on the full moon and continued the tradition with my niece.

My mom was diagnosed with the autoimmune disease schleroderma when I was in college, We were lucky to have her with us for 20 years, well beyond what her doctors had predicted. Towards the end, she was mostly house-bound due to being on oxygen. Her favorite thing was to drink her coffee in the morning while watching birds out of her kitchen bay window. She still reveled in the beauty in nature the way she saw it in the people she loved, celebrating every milestone.

Tonight on the eve of the Pink Moon, I’m missing her in the sweetest way. She’s been gone five years now. I honored her tonight with my sweet daughter Lila who she named. My mom died a week after her second birthday so it is important to me that Lila knows her through stories of us growing up and how much her Nana loved her.

Tonight we played my crystal sound bowl and meditated in honor of the Pink Moon. We held hands and giggled when her dog Diego tried to nudge his way between us. We listened to jazz and talked about going to a grown-up concert. We snuggled and she peeled us both a tangerine. It was a simple and beautiful night and I have a heart full of gratitude and joy. I love that I got to take an afternoon nap while listening to the rain and time tonight after I tucked her in to go outside and look at the full moon. It was windy and cold and the air was crisp from the rain. I listened to the leaves rustle and could smell the wet earth in the breeze. I closed my eyes and let it go deep into my lungs. I feel her with me and smiling over her sweet granddaughter sleeping. I love them deeply and connect them through space and time through my love.