It was a clear night when I got home, quiet, and a warm cup of hot chocolate waiting for me at the table. I walked outside, cup in hand and followed by the clicking of my aged flip-flops, and sat on the white rocking chair on the porch. A rocking chair so full of peace when it’s empty, and so comforting when it’s inhabited. Back and forth it went, back and forth. It didn’t change its rhythm, no, it stayed constant and steady. But it wasn’t predictable. Back and forth, in motion but not overexerting, and not defeated like its cousin “sofa”, forever to remain in one place. I sat on the rocking chair, looking up at the sky with all the eyes I had. The moon was out, the fullest moon I had ever seen, and it cast this shadow of light on the trees normally overshadowed by darkness. It twinkled, outstanding within the blind night, and winked at me. This moon, so humble, so simple, somehow winked at me. I remember it so clearly.

Back and forth, the rocking chair moved me and the moon, creaking slightly. I was farther away from the moon every time the chair flew backward, but it always went forward again. There were no stars out. Just the moon, in all its glory, indescribable to anyone who had never seen it. It’s just this simple, beautiful, suspended object that made me smile. And it was a smile different than any other. Because I remember this smile. It was calm and reserved, matching the smile of the moon. And I knew then, and I know now, that this feeling cannot stay here forever, as I am not a sofa. Back and forth it goes, but peacefully, gently, gratefully. It gives back what you feed it, propelling you forward if you grant it the energy to do so. And I remember whispering to myself as a swung forward in my modest throne, “The moon has never looked fuller.”

And sure, the sun will take its thunder soon enough, swallowing its face in the fiery morning. They tell you that the moon needs the sun, which is true, of course, but the sun - the sun needs the moon just as much. And I remember looking up at its glistening figure, round and clean and complete, and thinking, “The sun needs the moon so it, too, can experience the back and forth.”