Season 5 Timing: Vantage Point - What's Covering Your Moon

What's covering your moon?

In this episode of Vision in the Valley, I share a pivotal dream that marked the beginning of my journey into recognizing the importance of perspective, similar to an astronaut's unique vantage point. I dive into the deep, multifaceted connection with the moon, sparked by childhood memories of a song taught by my grandmother (Ma) and enriched through experiences with my daughter Ashley and granddaughter Camille. The moon symbolizes calmness, connection, and perspective, acting as a personal satellite guiding us through life. Reflecting on how the moon reflects the sun's light, I encourage listeners to identify and overcome obstacles blocking their own sources of peace and happiness, and to reflect divine light in their lives.

Transcript

  Welcome back to Vision in the Valley.  I had a dream a couple of years ago, and I've mentioned it, at least portions of it throughout. The podcast at different episodes just drawing on a point or a point of reference from time to time. In this particular dream, I was walking toward the end of the building in my workplace and the walls had started to slide over as if on a track.

And the windows started to slide down into their like secret compartments revealing nothing but space. There were no barriers between me and space.  I didn't know this at the time, but that was the very beginning of my astronaut experience, so to speak.  I saw the  cityscape as a 3D map before my eyes, and there were colors highlighting different parts of the city, and some of them overlapped like  As if cross functionally. 

I kept asking those around me if they were seeing this, as I often do, when things like this happen to me in the dream. And of course, no one knows what I'm talking about. No one sees what I'm experiencing.  And I've gotten better with that along the way, but this was in the very beginning of having, or at least me realizing that I was having those kinds of dreams.

And so I spent a lot of time being frustrated that no one is paying attention to what I'm asking. But I do remember at some point in time saying, Oh, only I can see this. This is my unique vantage point.  And it was actually a strategic vantage point. It reminded me of being on the deck of like a spaceship with very sophisticated GPS systems. 

So I've taken many revelations from that dream. And as I said earlier, I've referred to it quite often as I've talked over the course of the history of the podcast. It was my introduction into astronaut class, right? It was also the beginning of me recognizing the impact of my vantage point.  In my astronaut world, some things have always been true.

I have a different view or a different perspective than most people. And then there's a softer side where I have a love and an appreciation for the moon. Not just as like a stargazer,  a happen chan stargazer or a novice. Because all phases of the moon are fantastic to me. And all the full moons are super moons to me.

I'm just saying.  But it's not only the splendor, but also her timeliness and dependability. She's a secondary source of light,  but she's still very powerful enough to light the whole land, the whole earth. Oceans and seas respond to her, and the animals literally use her to reference transitional moments as they wait, as I do, for her extraordinary fullness to be revealed. 

The astronaut in me understands her gravitational pull and that she's responsible for the low and high tides.  I understand that there are many natural satellites in our solar system and our moon is just one of them. When we usually think about satellites, right? We think about man made machines that are launched into space, but the earth and the moon are natural satellites because they orbit or they move around larger objects.

The earth, of course, orbits the sun and the moon orbits the earth. We remember learning that a while ago, but just for reference sake.  The moon and the earth are always moving. And the moon orbits Earth as we just talked about. While that happens, we can see a different amount of the moon lit up by the sun.

This view is from our perspective on Earth and that gives us the phases of the moon. Right? The many phases of the moon. Sometimes the moon is completely lit up. That's our full moon. And sometimes it's completely dark and that's the new moon where it looks like there's no one out there, but there is. And then of course the phases are in between there. 

So the interesting thing to me is that the view or the vantage point of the moon is directly associated with your perspective from earth. That's just full.  But let's just digress for a moment and get back to the satellite part. I want to talk more about what the purpose of a satellite is.  So satellites help us to stay connected to each other.

They provide impactful information about climate change and the weather. They help us to navigate our cars and our planes and our, our ships, our vessels. And of course we know about the helping us with the TV and radio signals.  So the moon is a satellite. But that's still speaking to the astronaut in me.

The warm and cozy and fuzzy side of me connects the moon in a different way. I'm connected through my grandmother. When I was a child, my grandmother,  who my sister and I daringly call Ma, taught me a song. I'm sure taught us a song, but in this moment I'm just seeing her and the two of us together.  And the song is very short and sweet, and I feel kind of funny singing it out loud, but it's I see the moon and the moon sees me God bless the moon and God bless me And forever I don't care what state we lived in.

I remember holding her hand and looking up at the moon and singing the song. Now, what I don't know is did she sing that song to me because of my impression, my interest in the moon way back then? Or do I have this love for the moon because she planted that seed way back when? I don't know the difference, but I love the moon nonetheless. 

It pleases my heart because when I talk about the moon, my youngest daughter is also very much into the moon. In fact, she bought me a telescope for my birthday last year and we've been moon gazing on a different level since then. It's like one of the best gifts I've ever received and not that I have not received a lot of good gifts, but it does something, it does something to me in a different way.

Okay. I also have a granddaughter, a Camille through Ashley, my oldest daughter, who loves the moon and listening to the stories that she talks with her mom about, it just warms my heart and I think about how my grandmother would be so pleased  if she could be a part of this whole thing. It's like a little secret, a little  warm, fuzzy, cozy secret. 

In fact, Alyssa and I are so in tune, we'll call or text each other. Letting each other know that there is a moon, a new moon phase, or do we know about it? Have we seen it? Did you see the moon today? And I do this with my guy as well. And we're both, we're just like really excited about, did you see it? And it's like, we, it's like, we just revel in the splendor of it all.

And on this one particular occasion, she'd asked if I'd seen the moon on this day, and I didn't see it yet. I was, I looked, I looked to the left, I looked to the right, I looked up above and I didn't see it. And I was trying to figure it out. I was like, I know it can't be in the back of me because the moon moves and sometimes it is in the back.

So I went to the back of the house to look out, out there. I didn't see it. And we talked a little bit about it. I'm like, Oh, you know what? It's just blocking from this, from this perspective, from this vantage point, I'm not going to be able to see it. But I was just kind of thinking about it as time went on,  going back and forth to look at the window.

And I decided, well, she's the way she's describing it is so beautiful. I'm going to just get in my car and just drive a little bit to see it.  And as I grabbed my keys, I noticed that it was starting to peak up. From behind this building, really tall building. And when it did  slowly creeping up, it just, the revelation of it all just hit me.

It's about perspective, right? The moon was there and someone else was able to see it in its glory where they were, but where I was from my vantage point in that moment, I could not see it.  Sometimes the clouds are so thick and they're rolling so fast that we can only get a fleeting glance at the moon.

And sometimes it's like that building where nothing you can do is going to, short of getting out of your space and moving around it, will you see it? Sometimes you just have to wait for it to come up above it, rise above the building. I know you know where I'm going with this already. It's like if I'm anticipating this great experience and I've described to you what it feels like with the moon for me.

If I'm anticipating this great experience, I have to be ready for it. I have to be willing to adjust my position to receive the fullness of it.  Sometimes it's about moving physically into another position. Sometimes it's about being patient enough to let it rise above whatever that challenges is in front of me. 

So I'm connected to the moon in a couple of ways. It connects me to my dear grandmother slash ma, right? My daughter and my granddaughter. It's a smile to me from the Lord. And it's a reminder that he is so intentional about everything. That there's not one thing that he hasn't put  purpose in.  It calms me. 

And you can be motionless and yet not be still. So it's stills me. And I'm very thankful for that.  It's my satellite. It's my personal satellite. It serves as my GPS and I'm willing to move around anything that's blocking its view. And I'm patient enough to wait for its appearance for things that I can't move around.

So my question to you, it's what's blocking your moon. Anything that important, anything that's going to give you GPS connectivity and connections back to your family or whatever that calmness is, anything, it may not be a moon for you, but you need that connection. So what's blocking your moon?  Because it's all about perspective, right?

It's all about your vantage point. The other perspective I wanted to leave you with is that because the moon does not emit its own light. It's a secondary light source. And it's funny because when I met my guy, one of the very first things we were talking about because of the love, for the mutual love for the moon is that I was saying that I said quite the opposite.

And he's like, Oh no, this, the moon gets the light from the sun. And I'm thinking to myself, no, this can't be true. I should know this. I should know this. And so of course I had to do some research. But the moon is a secondary light source because unlike the sun, it doesn't emit its own light. Instead, it reflects the light from the sun.

But what I really wanted to lean in on this last bit was that as in touch as I am with the moon, there was still something that I didn't know about it and I learned, but it also made me feel like, wow, the moon does a fantastic job of reflecting the light from the sun.  It's not the primary source of light, but it does an amazing job of  giving light to what needs light in the darkness.

I love to think of myself as being a reflection of God's light, right? So in addition to recognizing what that thing is, that's blocking your calmness or your connection to your family or your connection to your peace or your connection to your happiness. Let the moon be your guide to reflecting. God's awesome light.

I can't wait to talk to you soon.