The advent of hope

It was Sunday at midnight and I was sound asleep in my bed. Something startled me awake. I looked in the doorway and there was a six foot one inch dark shadow filling the frame. I shrieked.

"Mom it's just me," my almost 18 year old said.

"What's wrong," I mumbled trying to shake awake.

"It's the moon. There's something wrong with the moon."

I was now fully awake and groaned inwardly. As a mom I am required to fix a lot of things. Broken shoe laces, lost homework, shattered hearts.... but the moon. Come on. Can someone else take a freaking turn?

My oldest continued, "You have to come outside and see this. Something is really wrong. It's weird."

I grabbed a sweatshirt and we walked out the back door onto the grass.

The moon, one night away from complete fullness, was bright in the sky. Around the moon was a huge ring of light.

"See," he said. "What is that?"

I honestly had no idea. I had never seen anything like it.

We took turns guessing. A portal to another dimension. An opening for alien space invasion. The moment that 2020 sucked us all up into one giant cosmic vacuum.

Finally we just stood in awe of unexplained wonders that we could experience side by side.

As this inexplicable year begrudgingly drags its black hole of darkness to a close, there is still the advent of hope reminding us that undiscovered magic and abundant joy are always close at hand.

**Epilogue - yes we did end up using Google (the killer of all things magical with its logical explanations) and discovered it is called a lunar halo. Still magical and joy filled in my mind!