Moonrise

Spent Sunday in San Kamphang, a small village outside of Chiang Mai to visit a friend at his (fairly) new and (extremely) beautiful property. His place is basically a Thai style house, right next to an identical house owned by his friends. They agreed to build a massive deck connecting the two and it is surrounded by mountains, a pond and tree orchards. We spent the day cooking skewers, grilling fish, making smoothies, eating eating eating. He's got the right idea. A perfect getaway in the mountains to escape to year round, just near the hot springs, not too far from the city. He's nice enough to share it with friends, and I'm grateful I finally got to see it.

The best part of the evening was anticipating the moon. It was full and scheduled to rise at 6:31pm, and the sun sets about 30 minutes prior. We huddled on the deck under blankets and watched the tip of the mountain start to glow from the light of the moon. All of a sudden it looked like a flashlight was shining through the trees at the top of the mountain, but the light got bigger and bigger. Here it was, the moonrise. Painfully exciting in a quiet way. We sat in silence, listening to Hebrew music that was appropriately about the moon guiding a person to their love. I've seen some incredible sunrises in my life, but I can't say I ever sat and watched a moonrise. Other-worldly, I tell you. One of those moments where you sit quietly and don't pay attention to the time until you notice how much the moon has moved above the horizon. We finally broke the silence, drank coffee and ate cookies making quiet comments about how beautiful this is. Reminded me how much I loved studying astronomy. As a child I remember riding in the car and watching the moon, wondering how it knew exactly where to go to follow us all the way home. It raced along the side of the car with us, not moving from that spot outside the window. Almost like it was a little plea to say, "don't forget about me!" and the moonrise was no different. It's so easy to get caught up in what is only in front of you and forget to look up once in awhile.