I have taken many disappointing photos of the moon over the years, and a few good ones. I noticed, as I searched through my photos, that I mostly have photos of the full-ish moon, and no photos at all of a crescent moon. I gave myself a summer discipline- I would take a photo of the moon each day for a month. I’d always been a bit confused about when and where the moon would appear, and hoped this practice would help me finally understand. I downloaded a moon app to my phone, so I would know what time the sun would rise and set each day.
Fortuitously, on the first day of my new discipline, a waxing gibbous moon appeared in the sky while I was taking my dogs for their evening walk. I rushed to grab my camera and fiddled with settings until I got a passable photo. The next night I couldn’t find the moon, so I explained my daily-moon-photo plan to the family and asked them to please yell out “moon” whenever they saw it. The first time my partner yelled “moon” I rushed to spot where he was pointing – there it was! I ran for my camera, but by the time I got back, it was covered by clouds. Disappointed, I added another app to my phone so I could more reliably locate the moon in the sky. I checked my app several times each day and began making progress toward my goal.
One night that great super moon was due to rise right at bedtime. I live in a valley and it would take hours for the moon to appear above the hills and tree line from my house. Not wanting to miss it, I jumped in the car and drove to the top of a hill, finally capturing a lovely photo in a gap between trees and through whisps of clouds. 
I was starting to get the hang of it- the moon rose later and later each day, generally rising at one side of my yard behind one clump of trees, and setting near the front of my house behind another clump of trees. I looked forward to my first morning photos of the crescent moon, but between the trees in full leaf and the morning clouds, days went by with no photo. Soon my app showed me that the crescent moon would be right near where the sun was appearing, but I couldn’t look at the spot without hurting my eyes. I finally understood why I had so few photos of the crescent moon!
Each day I searched the sky multiple times, the disciple no longer about snapping a photo, or even spotting the moon, but just following the trajectory by holding the app up to trees or buildings or whatever blocked my view. At least I was learning something. A Jewish month always starts on the new moon- historically months began on the day that the first little sliver is sighted in the sky by 2 witnesses, and validated by the trained astronomer Rabbis. As my month of moon watching approached the time of the new moon I understood why it was traditional for folks to stand on a hill together awaiting that first moon siting. Even with my partner and son helping, it was a full 6 days after the calendar told me the new moon had appeared before I saw it with my own eyes.
Then the rains began, and I tracked an invisible moon holding my app up to the cloudy sky for several days with no photograph at all. Finally the waxing gibbous moon appeared as I walked my dogs in the evening, just as it had the month before.
Through all those days when there was no visible moon to photograph, a phrase kept popping into my mind “Faithless as the moon.” I went to look up the text, sure it was Shakespeare, and found I had made it up. Because in fact the moon is not faithless, she is right where she should be in her transit whether we can see her or not. What Shakespeare did write (in Romeo and Juliet) is: “Do not swear by the moon, for she changes constantly. then your love would also change.” This is also not quite true; the appearance of the moon changes, and where she hangs in the sky and when, but the moon itself is quite predictable if you track her patterns and do a little math (or download an app).
The moon is actually quite faithful and changeless -- it is only our point of view that changes. As a preacher this spoke to me. In these quixotic and dramatically changing times. In a summer when both rainstorms and long dry periods came in unprecedented and anxiety-producing ways, I liked the idea that the moon was always there whether we could see it or not. I came to enjoy and look forward to the practice of noting the moon’s rise and set and following her transit on the sky, even when she was invisible to me day after day until finally, right on schedule, the clouds parted and she appeared where she was supposed to be. Perhaps the moon can help us have faith in those things we know are there but cannot see, like the Love that never lets us go. Like the inescapable web of life which holds us in relationship even when we feel most alone. After a summer of searching for the moon, she has become a reminder, when we see her and when we don’t, that there is more to this universe than we can see, and we can have faith in that.
I have taken many disappointing photos of the moon over the years, and a few good ones. I noticed, as I searched through my photos, that I mostly have photos of the full-ish moon, and no photos at all of a crescent moon. I gave myself a summer discipline- I would take a photo of the moon each day for a month. I’d always been a bit confused about when and where the moon would appear, and hoped this practice would help me finally understand. I downloaded a moon app to my phone, so I would know what time the sun would rise and set each day.
Fortuitously, on the first day of my new discipline, a waxing gibbous moon appeared in the sky while I was taking my dogs for their evening walk. I rushed to grab my camera and fiddled with settings until I got a passable photo. The next night I couldn’t find the moon, so I explained my daily-moon-photo plan to the family and asked them to please yell out “moon” whenever they saw it. The first time my partner yelled “moon” I rushed to spot where he was pointing – there it was! I ran for my camera, but by the time I got back, it was covered by clouds. Disappointed, I added another app to my phone so I could more reliably locate the moon in the sky. I checked my app several times each day and began making progress toward my goal.
One night that great super moon was due to rise right at bedtime. I live in a valley and it would take hours for the moon to appear above the hills and tree line from my house. Not wanting to miss it, I jumped in the car and drove to the top of a hill, finally capturing a lovely photo in a gap between trees and through whisps of clouds. 
I was starting to get the hang of it- the moon rose later and later each day, generally rosing at one side of my yard behind one clump of trees, and setting near the front of my house behind another clump of trees. I looked forward to my first morning photos of the crescent moon, but between the trees in full leaf and the morning clouds, days went by with no photo. Soon my app showed me that the crescent moon would be right near where the sun was appearing, but I couldn’t look at the spot without hurting my eyes. I finally understood why I had so few photos of the crescent moon!
Each day I searched the sky multiple times, the disciple no longer about snapping a photo, or even spotting the moon, but just following the trajectory by holding the app up to trees or buildings or whatever blocked my view. At least I was learning something. A Jewish month always starts on the new moon- historically months began on the day that the first little sliver is sighted in the sky by 2 witnesses, and validated by the trained astronomer Rabbis. As my month of moon watching approached the time of the new moon I understood why it was traditional for folks to stand on a hill together awaiting that first moon siting. Even with my partner and son helping, it was a full 6 days after the calendar told me the new moon had appeared before I saw it with my own eyes.
Then the rains began, and I tracked an invisible moon holding my app up to the cloudy sky for several days with no photograph at all. Finally the waxing gibbous moon appeared as I walked my dogs in the evening, just as it had the month before.
Through all those days when there was no visible moon to photograph, a phrase kept popping into my mind “Faithless as the moon.” I went to look up the text, sure it was Shakespeare, and found I had made it up. Because in fact the moon is not faithless, she is right where she should be in her transit whether we can see her or not. What Shakespeare did write (in Romeo and Juliet) is: “Do not swear by the moon, for she changes constantly. then your love would also change.” This is also not quite true; the appearance of the moon changes, and where she hangs in the sky and when, but the moon itself is quite predictable if you track her patterns and do a little math (or download an app).
The moon is actually quite faithful and changeless -- it is only our point of view that changes. As a preacher this spoke to me. In these quixotic and dramatically changing times. In a summer when both rainstorms and long dry periods came in unprecedented and anxiety-producing ways, I liked the idea that the moon was always there whether we could see it or not. I came to enjoy and look forward to the practice of noting the moon’s rise and set and following her transit on the sky, even when she was invisible to me day after day until finally, right on schedule, the clouds parted and she appeared where she was supposed to be. Perhaps the moon can help us have faith in those things we know are there but cannot see, like the Love that never lets us go. Like the inescapable web of life which holds us in relationship even when we feel most alone. After a summer of searching for the moon, she has become a reminder, when we see her and when we don’t, that there is more to this universe than we can see, and we can have faith in that.
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