Full Moon - Full Circle

Dinner for two.

We sat across from each other with no leaf in the kitchen table anymore.  The leaf was quite necessary to fit all 7 of us at one time.

"It's supposed to be King Tide tonight due to the largest full moon in a long time. They call it a Supermoon"

"You want to go to the beach after dinner to see it rise and shine on the ocean"?

"Yeah".

"Let's just forget the dishes, throw on our bathing suits and go."

So we did.

After 30 years of raising children, we can finally do that again.

Earlier that day we had helped pack our son's car with his college belongings and sent him off to Summer B session of summer school in Orlando.

The last one flew.

We were free again!!

So there, at Lake Worth beach,  we sat gazing at the silvery balloon with a few hundred people, reflecting on the full moon and the full circle that we had made in life.

Full moon rising. 8:40pm

We started out at the beach, 1978. Newport Beach, California and the grey Pacific's salty damp air wafting through our bedroom window, waves crashing.  The white noise lulled us to sleep every night.

For five years it was just us, no kids. So when we wanted to go to the Balboa Fun Zone and play arcade games, including these new electronic ones called Galactica and Phoenix, we just got up and went.

Or if we wanted to ride the tandem bike to Lido to walk the wharf and get coffee, we up and went. No strings attached.

Then we had a precious baby girl, April. It wasn't as easy as it used to be to go out. Had to pack diapers,
wipes,
bottles,
snacks,
toys,
sweaters,
strollers
and car seat just to to go down the street.

Life was more constrained. Beautifully constrained. Then there was a baby boy. Then another.  And another and another.

Don't get me wrong. I always cried at the last milestone of the youngest. I cried when April went off to college at the same time that Carlin went to kindergarten. I cried when April got married. Carlin cried at age 8, when April got married. Boy, did that one surprise us all!

So, here we are at West Palm Beach, Florida near the turquoise Atlantic and the perpetual balmy warm air,

and we are 'free' again.

We just get up and go when we want to. No teenagers to check up on or text when they are past curfew.

It's the culmination of the lunar cycle. The culmination of the child rearing cycle.

Working on our 'moon tan.'

The beginning of the New Moon of our lives.