by Marykathryn Crabtree

Created on: March 18, 2009

I find it funny how I have lived in Maine for my entire existence and have never seen a true full moon until I moved into the home I live in now...maybe it was that I never really paid attention to it, or perhaps it was that my childhood home was surrounded by massive oak, pine, and birch trees. I can remember laying on beds of pine needles and staring upwards, not even seeing any sky~just trees and branches swaying back and forth. Sometimes it seemed as if all the world hushed so that all I could hear was the rustling sound the leaves made as they brushed against one another.

I'm not quite sure why, but I have always needed to have a nightlight in my room while I slept...even as an adult. My husband never asked why, he just accepted it. After our two children were born, I went from having one nightlight, to having one in every room. My husband would tell all of our family and friends that our house could be seen from space, and for a little while I contemplated maybe loosing a flame or two, but those thoughts were quickly extinguished. I wanted to make sure that even in the dead of night I would be able to get to the kids without tripping over a toy or bumping into a wall. I also wanted our children to be able to get to us for the same reasons...makes sense doesn't it?

Well, one wintry day during a fierce storm, our electric wires were torn from our house. The kids and I found it exciting to have no television, phone, or radio. Everything was so quiet. All we could hear was the soft tapping of sleet against our bitterly cold windows and the wind as it whipped by.

After a mad dash outside to grab some wood, we fired up our old wood stove then settled in for some hot cocoa and board games. The hours slipped by intertwined with laughter and made up stories about pirates on long lost ships, and knights in shining armor who came to rescue their waiting princesses.

My husband arrived home after a brutal day of wind and cold, and as he sat by the fire he informed me that he had seen no power trucks anywhere near our house and that we needed to "hunker" down for a long chilly night. All of a sudden it dawned on me that the fire would be our only light...we had no batteries for our flashlights, and no lanterns. Our candles that we used every day were low on their wicks and certainly would not last for the duration on the night. I could feel my heart begin to race as I set up pillows and blankets in the living room. Night fell upon us carelessly, and quickly.

I don't know how or when I fell asleep that night, but I did only to awaken to what seemed to be the coming of dawn. Much to my surprise as I looked at my watch, I found it was 1:30am. I asked my self how it could be so light out, and as I peered out the living room window, I saw the biggest full moon I had ever seen. I was thirty six years old. There was my nightlight.

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