A Soulful Reflection: Driving with The Snow Moon

Early in my ministry career, while I was in Beverly, MA, in a desire to expand my understanding of nature and the soul, I attended a workshop about an hour away, in Concord, MA. It was a cold, clear crisp February day; there was about 3 inches of snow from a recent small storm on the sides of the road, but the road itself was clear and dry…

The workshop was held in one of the local churches. It was led by a small group of facilitators who were connected to the work of Johanna Macy, Buddhist scholar and environmentalist, and her outlook on developing a greater sense of compassion for our world and ourselves. It was entitled: A Council for All Beings” and it emphasized our relationship to the earth and to all living things.

Briefly, it involved each of us in mask making and to need to embody the picture of an endangered animal and the to become its voice and express its feelings on how the impact of our modern society and its materialistic values threatened its life with extinction!

After the introductions, we were give rudimentary art materials- simple colored markers, elescics and paper, to create our animal masks. The goal was not to create art, but a symbolic mask that could depict the feelings of the animal we selected; to assist us in making thier voices heard in way that they could express their distress, and for of our collective hearts and minds to become more empathically aware. In thast way we could begin our own effective advocacy, and work together to promote effective solutions to the crisis many animals are facing in today’s world.

Needless to say, it was a powerfully prophetic and disturbing afernoon of sharing; seeing and hearing the reports of sorrow, fear, danger and distress…

and yet, through our greater awareness, empathy and compassion, we could begin to offer solace, and begin to earnestly advocate for a more broad concern for enviornmental justice, preseversation for natural habitats, and sanctuaries.

It was dark by the time the workshop ended, we all said our good-byes in a rather pensive way, knowing that in our hearts and in our lives, there was work to do…

Startled at first, the winter chill of the February air made its presence known immediately after leaving the warm environs of the church! Walking to my car,

I sensed something had shifted in me… Something inside me was stirring and the larger sense of life that was far removed from my daily routines or ministry responsibilites made its way into my thought, and found a place in my heart…Connected…. mysteriously and graciously held by an invisible force that bonded my life to all that lives and breathes…

Driving home down Rt.2 on the way to Rt. 128, I was amazed to find that I had a celestial companion travelling right in front of me…A presence, larger than anything I had ever seen while driving, and she accompanied me all the way home! It was the full moon of February, the Snow Moon, shining brightly and moving along with me on my road ahead; glistenng across the surrounding fields of white, filling my windows with light, and depending on the twists and turns of the road, she greeted me boldly- face to face!

As much as safety would allow, I locked in on the glow and the grace of that moon… and its benevolent yet penetrating glow filled my car, and its light began to offer me a quality of affection and connection that I had never felt before…

It was a sense of oneness with the Creation, and a sense of belonging to nature as someone who was both enchanted and consoled; bathed in that moonlight

in a way that seem to brighten my life, and give warmth to my soul…

Looking back, over the times when I have felt an intimacy and an ultimacy with nature, I would have to list being shown the way home by glow of the Snow Moon as a lunar blessing; one that has had a lasting benefical effect on me…