After the vows were said and the rain had passed, it was a moon like this that we danced under.

And Nothing Else Matters.





Here is the story of a wedding and a moon.

I took this picture Wednesday night. Car and I were driving back from sword class when I spied this beautiful sphere hovering above us just waiting for it's photograph to be taken. And suddenly it reminded me of the night of my wedding. Strange, I thought, as I can't really remember exactly the color of the moon that special evening. But for whatever reason, that is what I thought of when I saw this glowing orb. And if I had to pick, this would be the moon we saw that night. Anyway, I had a list of things to do when I got home, but suddenly, I couldn't think of one.

Because Nothing Else Matters...

Funny, that was our wedding song...

I knew the moon would stick around for a wee bit longer, but I raced home to get my camera just the same. As car glided around the windy turns, moon darted behind trees and played in the hills. And I truly believe car was enjoying the chase as much as moon was.

The smell of spaghetti filled the kitchen as I ran in to grab my camera case and tripod. I stopped and looked at the pot cooking on the stove, but Earl wouldn't deny me my moon. He assured me the pot could wait and shoed me back out the door. But with all the trees and houses around me, I couldn't see much from my yard. It was then that my sweet husband threw me the keys to head up to Lehigh.

I jumped back into car with my equipment and headed out to the campus. We drove up to the top of the mountain, but alas, barely a sliver could be seen. Moon was peeking through some tree tops and I swear, I saw him wink. Oh you little tease, I thought, and headed back down the road to more open spaces. But moon was quick to hide and I knew car had to take me up and over the mountain to catch him.

We climbed over the mountain and reached the top in minutes. Like a great orange pearl, moon showed himself in all his glory.

I feared we had waisted enough time already and had car pull into an open parking alot. I then proceeded to set up shop behind Blockbuster.

Moon was very patient. He waited for me to fight with my tripod and he waited for me to experiment with different settings, but soon he had to let the misty clouds that kept him company go about their way. I took shot after shot, messed with f/stop after f/stop, swapped lens after lens - and I learned things, I learned many wonderful things.


For one, I learned how not to make the moon look like the sun, or any other big flaming ball of light...




Then a little voice kindly reminded me of a husband with certain pot of spaghetti waiting for me.

As I drove home, memories of our wedding came flooding into my brain. I knew in exactly one week, we would be celebrating our third year as man and wife.

After 13 years of bliss, Earl and I were finally married August 24th, 2002. The great Pennsylvania Sky was our canopy atop Chainsaw Hill on Highland Farm. And just as we were about to get started, Sky decided to open upon thee with great rain and pour nothing short of a monsoon over us. Our little tent protected our guests, but not our photographer and she retaliate with the world's worst wedding album. Sky poured her little heart out. She poured all the luck she could down on our wedding. But soon enough, after the vows were said, Sky quieted down. By nightfall, the cows and Moon came out to join us. Enchanting mist rolled through the hills, and we had our dance. Afterwards, my father brought me out from under the tent, and said "Look!" for there were stars to be seen and Moon was full. Twas a magnificent sight to behold.

Because once again, Nothing Else Matters.



Love for thy love, and hand for hand I give.
~ William Shakespeare


Perhaps then this was more like the moon that shared our evening with us. Or was it all just a Midsummer Night's Dream?

And even though our angry hired photographer gave us such a mess of an album, we found ourselves blessed once again. For in our hands we found a collection of beautiful shots from a guest who happened to also be a professional photographer. We also collected pictures from family and guests and were able to compile our own album.

But seeing as we had no pictures of Moon that night, I believe a photo would have gone something like this...

Dare to dream.







Because Nothing Else Matters.