Habitual Habitat of the Amy

I kept reading advice columns for how to bring sales to your etsy shop, and one thing they all said is to get a blog.

I can't say this blog has boosted my etsy sales, but it has given me yet another outlet for talking about myself, and that can't be bad--can it?

The direct link to the Etsy shop is HERE

Saturday, January 29, 2011

The Face of the Moon

Full Moon Beaded Tapestry on Etsy
  
I grew up reading fantasy novels (surprise! I bet you never would have guessed *that*), and they always made a big deal about "oh, we can run away tonight, no prob; there's a full moon."  I never really thought much about it.  I just assumed the authors knew what they were talking about and went with it.

Then as I got older I started to notice that the moon really wasn't all that bright--not in the city, anyway (my hometown is a moderately sized college town).  And I started to doubt that the authors really knew what they were talking about.

But then came the first summer I worked at camp.  I was just a Junior Counselor that year, so I was stuck somewhere in between being a camper and being staff.  Because I wasn't old enough to live with the staff proper (I was only seventeen and technically a minor), but was still working for camp and thus couldn't live with the campers, I and the other two JCs were stuck in this one tent on the far side of a large field.

The very far side of a very large field.  Actually three fields depending on how you walked across them.

A typical summer is about two and a half months long, although I think I started a few months late that year, but every night I had to walk across that giant field by myself (it was mowed grass and not dangerous unless you hit the flag pole).  I decided it was a good enough time as any to practice getting over my fear of the dark, so each night I'd try to walk a little farther without the flashlight.  I quickly got to the point where I could make it across the whole field without my flashlight--

But then a week later it was far too dark to see anything.  It took me a few days to catch on, but eventually I realized that it was because the moon was (gasp!) new and not shedding its light down on us little ones below.

Ultimately that summer gave me an incredible appreciation for the stars and the moon and all the things that our ancestors knew but that we've forgotten in our artificially-lit lives.  I try not to be overly spiritual most of the time, but seeing those stars wheeling overhead while my feet were guided only by the light of the moon--it's a set of memories I treasure greatly.

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