“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.”  ~ Hilary Cooper

On a recent trip to the Smoky Mountains my husband woke me from a deep sleep to come look out the window. Both of us being somewhat “moon-chaser’s”, we are always dragging each other to the window when there’s a particularly eye-catching one. No matter how tired, neither of us can usually resist the urge to look.

“You might not want to miss that big yellow moon out there,” he tempted me. I sleepily thought to myself, Oh, stop–not tonight! I’m waaayyy too tired to drag the camera and tripod out. I’ll just get up and watch a minute and then drop back in the bed. And so I did. I peered out the window and he was right. I did not want to miss this. But, no pictures tonight. So I watched.

But not for long.

Unsure if my brain could even function with settings, I quickly grabbed everything and headed out to the balcony. There before me against a silhouette backdrop of mountains, the yellow deepened. Hmmm … Suddenly I woke up! And “click, click, click” away I went. Then, to my sudden surprise, it turned a brilliant orange! As I clicked away for a few minutes another phenomenon happened.

It turned deep RED!  Then, guess who was dragging the husband back out of bed! Mind you, this took place in a span of only twenty minutes.

It hung there for a just few minutes before the earth’s rotation took it behind the mountains. As I dropped back to bed, I thought to myself, Oh, that was so worth it! Even if I don’t get a good photo it was so amazing! As you can see, I managed a few and each captures the color as it progressed.  It was one of those that felt so close you could touch it!

But you know what really made this for me? This is the second red moon I’ve seen this year. I saw the real “blood moon” back in February. No, I did not stay up and plan. I was on my usual commute to work and as I made my way over a big hill on our country road, it stole my breath at 5 am. I pulled over for about a minute with my phone.

It’s certainly not a technical masterpiece, but I think the color says it all!

But with the most recent, what if I hadn’t taken the time? What if I dismissed it as “just another moon” and stayed in bed? Sometimes God has these little surprises for me and I miss them because I’m waiting for some “big thing”.

Isn’t that how life is? Aren’t we usually striving and looking for such big moments that we end up missing the momentary, smaller glories right in our midst? And mine are usually right in my backyard.

Sometimes I just need to keep my eyes open.

Peace,
Alexandria