Gifts from the moon
To confess, we’re like this most of the time.
There are dull moments in our lives when we shallowly ponder on the vast, dark yonder—like merely seeing the stars twinkle and nothing more. Rarely, there are special moments when the moon beautifully gazes at you, seemingly talking as you intently watch. Tonight was one of those splendid evenings. I had no intention of letting go.
The moon was quietly conversing with me. The frigid December air enveloped me as I sat on our balcony at around midnight (but I am usually asleep at this hour).
It was extraordinarily bright and beautiful, as if it were the queen of the heavens. Normally, when it’s midnight and I’m alone in the dark because everyone else is asleep, I’d recall all those scary childhood stories. And I’d get frightened and return to my room very quickly. But staring at the magnificent moon that night, I felt secure bathing in its light.
The more I observed it, the more I thought that the moon presented a very unusual sight. But I was wrong. The moon has always been beautiful. I guess I was just blinded by the pressure and busyness of school work, covering my eyes to the constant beauty of a moonlit night. Most of the time, we’re like blind people; we forget to appreciate life as we drift along to the constant hum of ensuring our future and keeping ourselves occupied.
If we think about it, there are many good things happening around us, even more than the bad things we always notice. In life, like the moon, there are wonders worth beholding. We can notice these good things only if we pause and carefully listen to the very loud silence around us. Is that being awkward? Or “weird”? But I’d rather be so than not experience this breakthrough.
There is so much going on around us that have left us in a state of distortion—rather like existing but not living. It is like being in a soccer tournament: We’ve got a goal to keep—only that we’re too focused on the goal and ignoring our teammates. And worse, we keep on scoring but fail to see our victory or loss. It’s funny, but that’s how most of us have forgotten the reason behind our every effort.
Life on earth is both a gift and a mystery. Some people are lucky to have overcome the mystery and gone on to discover the gift awaiting them. That night, I was lucky to discover that life has scattered those gifts everywhere. It depends on us to untie the ribbons and unwrap those gifts. But this mystery is still a place in which I’m constantly groping.
When those special nights occur and the moon seems an unusual sight, it makes me think of how people thousands of years ago beheld the same orb and caught inspiration from it. It also makes me think how beautiful the earth might look like if viewed from the moon… Traveling to that huge, planet-like rock becomes so tempting. For now, I’ll settle for this cryptic dream that literally belongs to space: to taste a beautiful life on the moon.
David S. Hinolan, 18, is a pharmacy sophomore at Colegio San Agustin-Bacolod.
