The moon and life

Wow.  What an amazing last few weeks.  I'm back in Maralal today after spending a week down country in Nairobi.  On the drive back yesterday, I was chasing time to reach home before the sun set and the last super moon of 2019 would rise so I could get some pictures.  That was the idea at least.  As usual, distractions delayed me.  Though good distractions.  I stopped along the way to take some lovely pictures of giraffe, eland, ostrich and zebra that I saw along the way.  So the sunset caught me about 18 km from Maralal.  I was going directly North with the sun setting on my left and I kept looking right towards the East to see if I could spot the moon rising.  Driving fast, avoiding stones and big bumps, glancing right, driving fast, watching the sun go down in a blaze of red glory, driving fast, glancing right to look for the moon, dodging a rock, swerving around a hole.  Suddenly out of the corner of my eye I saw it…a huge pale globe emerging from behind the hills to my right.  I slammed on the breaks and grabbed my camera.  Bummer!  Power lines in the way.  A quick drive off the road across the fields until I had a good spot with just the hills and the amazing moon rising before me.  Out of the car and snapping pictures of the Worm Moon.  The last super moon of 2019.  The March moon at the equinox.  So cool.  It is called the worm moon because of the advent of spring and the warming earth (in the Northern Hemisphere) and thus gardening and worms and all such greenness.  I also turned around and took some pictures of the setting sun.  In Kenya on the equator, we have a sort of equinox all year around.  12 hour days and 12 hour nights.  So on every full moon, the sun is setting as the moon is rising.  But this moon was special.  So after just a couple shots of the sunset, I turned back around to snap a large number of the super moon rising.  So beautiful.  A fitting end to a lovely Nairobi trip.

What took me to Nairobi last Thursday were several things.  One was to meet some New Richmond friends, Beth and Tom, who were traveling in Kenya for a 2 week vacation.   They were leaving Friday and I hadn’t yet managed to get my schedule to coincide with their travels.  So down to Nairobi on Thursday to take them out for Ethiopian food and hear about their time in Kenya.  It was wonderful to meet them.  People from my old home town in my adopted home of Kenya.   So fun to see them.

Friday and Saturday were spent getting my car fixed…again!!  Uggh.  Third time in as many months that I had to get my shocks repaired.  The roads in Northern Kenya are so bad that lately, only one trip and the new shocks are destroyed.  So this time we took drastic measures and used the most heavy duty shocks that can be found for a Pajero as well as changing the coil springs.  Then Sunday and Monday I got to give the car some good road tests when I went with friends to see Nairobi National Park.  That was cool.  We saw so many animals.  I got so many good pictures.  I have a funny story too.  The second trip around the park on Monday it was just two of us.  We were determined to find lions in the wild as we had just been in the Animal Orphanage found at the gate to the park and seen lots of lions close up in the pens, but really wanted to see some free.  We also really wanted to see a leopard and hyenas in the wild.  That was our mission.  To find lions, leopards and hyenas in the park.  We were very intent on this mission and drove around a few hours looking on every rock, in every tree and under every bush.  It wasn’t to be.  We saw a lot, but no predators.  That night, I downloaded all the photos I took.  I had a lot of buffalo photos from a cool valley we had found while following a tip on possible lion sightings, but no luck on lions.  Lots of buffalo only.  So we thought.  As I flipped through the pictures, I suddenly saw a white shape in the picture background up the hill behind the buffalo.  I zoomed in and imagine my surprise when I recognized an incredibly clear shot of a huge rhino standing there on the hillside.  We had been so close, even unknowingly taking a picture of it, to a black rhino.  Yet we had both been so focused on looking for lions under all the bushes, we never looked up and around to see the rhino watching us.  Wow.  Talk about being oblivious.  I took it as a spiritual lesson.  In life, God (the Universe, Spirit, The One, The Force – whatever you want to call it or whatever name you have for God) has every good and amazing thing for us if we just open our eyes to see it.  But we often become so focused on the one idea we have that we think we want or need, that we are blind to all else around us.  If we would just stop and look around with clear spiritual senses and an open heart, we would see all the amazing things that God has there for us just waiting for us to see and accept it into our lives.  Back to the rhino.  I may have not seen it with my eyes at that moment, but it was in our presence, and we in its, and I have a picture of it, so I am counting it as one of the animals I have ‘seen’ in the park that day.  😊

All the time spent in the park and the animal orphanage was for the purpose of getting some more good pictures for possible use in my children’s book.  Tuesday I had a good meeting with the creative director and editor of my publisher discussing the final needs and illustration ideas for getting the book ready for printing.  Fingers crossed that it will be printed the end of April.  One step closer to realizing my dream of getting this book published.  After the meeting, my work in Nairobi was done.  A few more meals with friends in the afternoon and evening.  One more night.  Then up yesterday to pack the car, finish shopping and race North to catch the super moon as it rose majestically over the Samburu hills.  Life is such an adventure.  I love the chaotic beauty of it all!!!