Moonlight on the Water

I drove down to the beach today to watch the full moon rise. 

It was a gorgeous day - clear and sunny, cool and breezy for a June afternoon. Today's full moon is close enough to perigee that it's appearing as a "super moon," and I thought it would be beautiful and breathtaking to behold, rising over the Atlantic Ocean off the Jersey shore. 

Everything set up beautifully. As the sun was sinking in the west, the eastern sky over the ocean took on color - pink, lavender, periwinkle. And then . . . clouds began to roll in from the south east, just where the moon would be rising. 

I waited.

The sky inland was clear. The sky north, up the coast was clear. The moon rose behind clouds that were so thick that I could not see the light or glow behind them. So, I drove home and as I was coming over the bridge from New Jersey into Pennsylvania, a gorgeous silvery white super moon had risen high into the sky and was shining its light down onto the dark waters of the Delaware River. 

The movement of light on the water was breathtaking.

The Delaware River is a dynamic body of water with fast-moving currents, and the light seemed to dance on the waters, highlighting the movement. It reminded me of moonlight shining on the ocean. I drove slowly across the bridge, savoring the beauty. I had driven to the shore to see the moonlight on the water and had to wait to come home before that beauty revealed itself.

A Hundred Days of Happiness is a daily writing practice that opens a landscape of discovery into my own human experience.

Katherine Cartwright has been blogging since 2012, and each year brings new wonders. She asks big questions of the small things in life.

The featured photo is one I took on July 31, 2015, another time when I drove to the shore to watch the moon rise. .