Bex Hall

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moon cycles

Walk When the Moon is Full

February’s Snow Moon marks our first adventure

Full Snow Moon

About 29 years ago when my daughters were 8 and 2 years old, we camped at Cave Run Lake in Kentucky. There was a visitor center where I found a book called Walk When the Moon is Full.   The author describes thirteen moonlight walks with her children and the nature observations they made. I fell in love with the idea and initiated the practice that year.

Out of print book Walk When the Moon is Full

I don’t know why I didn’t document the expeditions. Life got in the way. Priorities shifted. Years passed, the girls grew up and moved away, and the book got lost in the shuffle.

Enter my curious 7-year-old granddaughter, Ellie. 

I located a copy of the now out of print book to revisit ideas and Ellie, Pawpaw, and I walked Saturday night under the full February Snow Moon. 

February Walk

We didn’t see any wildlife, it was extremely muddy, there was a light rain and lots of cloud cover. Ellie nearly lost a boot in the mud crossing the creek. The dog ran off, our two cats stalked us like panthers, and Ellie talked herself right into being afraid of the dark. She was eager to get back to the house.

Boot eating creek

But here’s the thing—we had fun. She spent the day beforehand getting ready for the journey. Flashlight, boots, rain coat. The anticipation was delightful. The preparation. 

We saw the little pond at dark. We heard strange noises and tried to identify them. We heard the blue Heron squawk as he flew away from the nearby cove. We waded into the swamp a little way. We made scary faces in the flashlight glow. Took some photos.

Nothing major, really, but it was an adventure. One we will refine and repeat. Next month is the Full Worm Moon on March 28th and we will walk again.

When the moon is full.

Old becomes new

I watched this morning as the shadows from the trees grew darker from the brightness of the full moon. The new fallen snow reflected the light in stark contrast with the sapphire blue sky at 4:30 a.m., Eastern.

As I wrote my morning pages, a pleasant memory surfaced. I used to walk when the moon was full with my young daughters. Once on a camping trip at Cave Run Lake in Kentucky, I discovered a book in the visitor center that inspired me to do that very thing. 

I don’t think we walked every full moon but we did it enough for it to be an adventure. Up past bedtime. Out in the woods illuminated by moonlight. The common becomes magical and mysterious. Anything is possible.

The daughters grew up and moved away and sometime during the transition from full house to empty nest, the book disappeared. Today I found a used copy of the out-of-print book from an online bookseller and ordered it. 

What better time than at the full moon to renew an old practice?

First full moon of 2021 is the Wolf Moon

Tonight’s full moon is often called the Wolf Moon, according to Bruce McClure and Deborah Byrd in Tonight of EarthSky. Click here for the full article.

My version of the Full Wolf Moon in watercolor

The Wolf Moon is said to be named after hungry wolves howling in the dead of night during the cold winter month.

I can relate. I’m hungry—for the sun and warmth, I’m howling—for more daylight, and I’m alone—longing for my pack. For connections. For some sort of normalcy.

Tonight I will watch the full moon rise and I will be up early to watch it set. And I’ll be thinking of you, somewhere out there, seeing the same moon as me.

“Those are the same stars, and that is the same moon, that look down upon your brothers and sisters, and which they see as they look up to them, though they are ever so far away from us, and each other.”

—Sojourner Truth