Calling the moon

"Calling the moon
'Cause I know what it's worth

To tug at the seas and illumine the earth

Oh, I am calling the moon

Oh, I am calling the moon"

~ Dar Williams, Singer-Songwriter 

A dear friend of mine, C., shared an interesting article about the effect of eclipses on our day-to-day experiences -- bringing seeming challenges or possible opportunities. Admittedly, eclipses -- lunar or solar -- would explain so much that has happened along life's journey the past six years.  I realized at least one major life-changing event has happened since A. & I have been together:

• 2005 . . . A. & I married
• 2006 . . . Dad began hormone therapy; I resigned from a longtime career at NYU and began my work in cancer support; A. underwent open heart surgery
• 2007 . . . Dad started chemo
• 2008 . . . Dad died; I was laid off
• 2009 . . . Unemployed for eight months, I finally started my work in government relations/advocacy; we started our adoption process
• 2010 . . . ICAB approved our adoption dossier; A. was laid off
• 2011 . . . Unemployed for almost one year, A. started his new position with IEEE just a couple of weeks ago!
• 2012 . . . ???

I suppose that even with challenges, opportunities have presented themselves, especially the time to reflect, nurture our Spirits, and be well.    


June 4 - Yesterday was my Dad's birthday.  He would've been 72.  Almost three years since his death, I am still overwhelmed by the memories of our last summer together, and my Mom & I work to grow an adult relationship as mother & daughter, not without its potholes along the way.  In my Mom, I am discovering the woman I, as her daughter, did not know, and I am taking to heart the courageous strength she mustered to stay the course of a dutiful wife & mother in a culture wrought with old school Filipino machismo and sometimes not-so-subtle derogatory behavior towards women and girls.  It's either a Pilipino teleserye or a Nicholas Sparks novel (I'm hoping, without the usual tragic ending). This is not to dishonor my Dad's memory or disrespect my parents or their marriage. No doubt Dad mellowed with age and illness.  It's true what some say, The only people who know what goes on in a marriage are the two individuals in that relationship. Strange how we really can never know what Life has in store, and we just have to accept the invitation to . . .


. . . move through the eclipse.