under a full moon...

The moon is full tonight...a glowing orb of brilliant milky white in a clear sky. The air is warm, but the sweltering heat of the past few days has dissipated for the moment, and I remember why I love summer nights in the South. The crickets are still singing their nighttime melody, but Nature's music is quiet and calm...like the night itself.

I gaze up at the moon and I am taken back to a night long ago. On another summer night, beneath a full moon, I danced barefoot to soulful music and embraced the magic of a place even further South, a place so close to home. The air was sticky and hot that night, far beyond warm, and bare skin glistened in the sultry humidity. Fireflies flickered iridescent, their flights etching patterns of color amidst the backdrop of old oak trees and tall, gently waving pines. The musky scent of marshland and the distant salt from the ocean infused my senses, and the night began with Mother Nature as my closest companion. Moments passed but I had no sense of time. Lost in a dreamworld, words flowed from somewhere deep within me...pen upon paper, words transformed time, and then time leapt forward and my words were silenced for a while. Seduction lurked in the shadows, primal instincts urging me out of my head and into a raw, visceral experience. Beneath a painted sky of indigo and black, I was no longer alone. First the outline of masculine angles, then the rugged beauty of his face emerged from the darkness...a face of familiarity and comfort. The night needed no words then and instinctually I knew everything I needed that night and nothing more. The beauty of a milky full moon, Mother Nature, a rugged face, and dancing barefoot on a Southern summer night.

I am far removed from that night now and yet this moon and this night intoxicate me in quite the same way. I ache to dance barefoot, to see the fireflies create abstract art against the canvas of the air. I long for the words to overflow and the scent of the earth to breathe exultant life back into me with each inhalation. I still feel that same freedom in my soul, but I wonder if I still have the courage to embrace it.