Dance in the Moonlight

As a child, one of the things I loved about living in Albuquerque, was having a big grassy lawn.  I loved running around barefoot, playing and wrestling with my dog, occasionally star gazing, and just simply laying there doing nothing.  But one of the things I loved most was when the moon was full or almost full, I would go outside and I would dance around barefoot in the moonlight.  I loved how the moon lit everything up with its white light, I loved the whole new perspective it gave to the world.  It was beautiful.

When my family moved out to Edgewood I couldn't do that.  There was no grass in our backyard, there were wood chips and there was rock and sand and weeds.  Not exactly the most ideal place to go barefoot.  So instead I would just watch the moon and the stars from my window seat in my room.  And I loved doing that too, because in the country, I could see far more stars than I ever could in Albuquerque.

Since moving back to Albuquerque, I really haven't thought much about what it used to be like when we lived here and I would happily go out and dance around.  But last night, as I was driving home from running some errands, I looked towards the mountains and saw this gorgeous almost full moon.  The mountains were that stunning pink they turn as the sun goes down and the moon was hanging just above them.  It was absolutely breathtaking and I kicked myself for not having my camera with me to try to capture it.

Some nights, I have trouble sleeping.  There's not always a good reason why, but sometimes I do.  As I was tossing and turning last night, trying to get some sleep that I desperately needed, I found myself staring at a patch of moonlight coming through my window.  Unable to sleep I figured what the heck and headed out to the backyard to sit on the grass and just kind of hang out for a while.  Miraculously, my dogs didn't go crazy and the night stayed perfectly peaceful.  I looked up and for the first time really since moving back to Albuquerque, I could see the stars.  I mean really see them.  Not just a patch here and there or just a few stars, but the sky was literally lit up with them.  I thought it was kind of funny since I had just talked to a friend of mine about how much I missed being able to see the stars.  But now I could see them and right in the middle of them all was that gorgeous moon casting its white light down turning the garden into a magical place.

Seeing that made me think of our old house with our huge grassy backyard.  I realized I kind of missed it.  Not that I would ever want to be that far out on the westside again, but I did have a lot of good memories there.  As I got up to head back inside and try to get some sleep I looked up at the moon again and that's when I thought about how I used to dance around the backyard barefoot, twirling about in my white nightgown, imagining that it was some beautiful ball gown.  Thinking about that I couldn't help but smile.  So last night, for the first time in ten years, I imagined I was wearing a beautiful dress and I danced in the moonlight.