Moondae Monday Challenge

Two days into the waxing cycle,
Moondae, November 24th, 2014:

As we headed into the Dark of the Moon I had the first Moondae Challenge on my mind. What would be a good starting challenge? I wanted something uplifting, exciting, memorable. What presented itself was anything but! I resisted; it persisted!

It began with a YouTube video sent to me by a friend. It was the first time
Johnny Mercer and Henry Mancini played “Moon River” as a demo.
The demo was exciting to me, not perfected, but the song was completed.
It’s a sad melody and the lyrics are also sad. The video transported me back to my childhood: My handsome older “baby” brother noodling on the piano, always noodling; my mom stacking LP’s of crooners, many of which were melancholy.
It would be many years before my records were added to the stack,
and my music would seem joyous or angry by comparison, the music of the sixties!
I penned a sketch in Noodler’s Heart of Darkness ink,
followed by watercolors, but no words came.
I moved on, but the melody persisted in my head.
Saturday night I had a dream of my brother and family,
and it was a sweet dream but also had a nagging quality.
Sunday I pushed to find meaning elsewhere. The melody persisted.

Finally (yes there are times I can be dense) I looked at the obvious.
Moon River was the key.
It clicked, just in time.
I go with the intuitive in my creative life and I journal and doodle and “noodle” and Booby Gurl is often my alter ego, talking on the page for me, revealing what needs to be said.

I want this challenge to be about how working with the amazing physical pull Luna Bella cycles through our own watery bodies, pushing and pulling the tides of our lives.

I want you to learn (by simply following along or participating in the Moondae Challenges) how building with the waxing phases and letting go during the waning phases, and yes, resting when need be during the dark times leads to more flowing, satisfying creative cycles. I want the sharing we do to be authentic, no holds barred. I know that sometimes it will all be too personal — that’s okay! Maybe just a glimpse of that can be shown.

Moon River is about the melancholy hopes dashed, and in my own creative family
many were dashed because everything was too special, too important, had to be too perfect. My baby brother never saw his many GREAT songs sung and played, because he was waiting for the BIG BREAK of Sinatra himself bestowing the mantle of Greatness.
He never played at a pub or with a band, and only family heard his melodies.

This is going to break that cycle. I share now, raw, what’s real, in the moment,
and some of it is brilliant and some of it is a struggle but by sharing I teach; that’s my way.
To think I was about to start Moondae in that sad legacy! AAACK!

The Universe in its wisdom was calling out to me to just let go, begin now,
begin with what is real, with whatever I am going through and invite you to do the same.
I will let you in on the flavors my husband and I share about the push and pull of the Suchness of Life and yes, La Bella Luna. We’re a bit Loonie in this household!

So this week’s challenge is this: as we begin the waxing cycle (it is not yet
Rosh Chodesh, meaning the sliver of the new crescent has not quite shown herself):
What holds you back?
Does your family have a legacy you share?
What is your wide river to cross, with the new light showing the way?
Can you see the other side?

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If you want to share this ride, post below.
It will take you to a new page then you can come back again.
This is my first trip to Linky Land; tell me right away if you have problems!

NOTE: We still have not got the kinks worked out . . .

☾

My painted images in Aquabee Super Deluxe 9×9-inch (of course, a lunar number)
journal with a Platinum Preppy fountain pen or Cocoiro pen,
and (mostly) Daniel Smith watercolor paints.