Crescent Moon

When I was young, and saw the moon hanging in the sky, I saw it differently. The full moon was bright and white as always, yet flat, not forming a sphere. It was drawn perfectly whole into the center of the night with it’s light grey freckles beaming. As weeks passed and it’s shaped changed from whole to half, I saw it just as that. Half. I didn’t see the omniscient dark-side-of-moon lingering on the other side. Just that flat, crescent shape that looked like someone had taken a bite from it. As I grow older I see it in a new light. I see the dark-side and the light-side, the good and the “bad”. I wish I could look up to the sky and see what I used to see, but that’s the problem with growth, you can never undo it. I can never un-see the dark-side-of-the-moon. 

My girlish dreams of love and fantasy were once magical. I saw a life full of fun and light-hearted romance. Kisses on the cheek before bedtime and dancing in the rain with my best dress on. It seemed to be the greatest idea, love. As I’ve grown, I’ve seen that love has many different sides to it. I’ve seen the passionate heat that rises, creating deep and dangerous romance. I’ve seen the sadness that edges in on love-lost-dreams when things just don’t turn out the way you thought they would. I don’t mean to say that I’ve seen it all, but I also don’t wish to diminish my experience or intellect. I am no beginner. 

You cannot undo what you do. There are no take-backs or undo buttons in life. What’s done is done, and you have to live with it. I cannot un-see the moon the way I see it now, or un-feel the passion of love. It is impossible. And I guess what I am trying to get out into the world is that; although we cannot undo, we can still dream. We shouldn’t let the things we have seen or felt keep us from dreaming. Just because the moon doesn’t hold the magic it used to, doesn’t mean the stars burn dim. Just because you have loved dangerously doesn’t mean you can’t one day, love someone in a safe, yet all-encompassing, way. Just because, just because.

Don’t let your hope burn out. Don’t let the dangers and sadness of the world haunt your dreams. You are what you make yourself out to be, and so are your goals and ambitions. If life is hard, well, if life is hard there are a lot of different factors, but one of the major factors could be that you are making it hard. I make life hard all the time. I do it everyday when I wake up with pride the size of an elephant chained to my foot. I drag it around with me saying, “I am going to fix things! And I’m going to do it on my own!” When what I really need to do, is realize that some things aren’t meant to be fixed. Some dreams aren’t meant to be realized. Haven’t you ever heard of a bad dream? It’s not just nightmares we are talking about here.

When I say, don’t let the dangers and sadness of the world haunt your dreams, I mean it. Don’t let the bad things in life bring you down. Let them build you up. See the bad, take note of it, understand it’s peril, and use your knowledge to overcome it. It’s true that there are no undo’s in life so we cannot waste our time hoping for things that won’t do us any good. Just because you want something, doesn’t mean you need it. There are tons of different options in this life. You could get chocolate ice cream, vanilla, butter pecan, strawberry, peach, salted caramel, pretty much any flavor you want! But that doesn’t mean that every option is good for you. You may love the taste of butter pecan, but be deathly allergic to pecans. Do you go on anyway? Maybe you do, I think we all do sometimes.

But, you know, I think it’s time to change.