My “Reading Woman” wall calendar for November shows a woman sitting at her table, hunched over a book, a cup of tea at her elbow. There appears to be no instant music device plugged into her ears. Nor is there a laptop or cell phone nearby.

This is definitely one old-fashioned November woman. But she’s a good model for what some believe nature intended us to do in the darker time of the year. Go quiet, hibernate. Be grateful when the weather turns wet and cold for an excuse to stay inside and read big books.

This is often hard to do with a painful recession and ongoing wars and 24-hour news hysteria making the worst of both. But sometimes you have to declare a recess and turn off your own internal hard drive.

I discovered another way to celebrate the change from light to dark by going on a full moon hike in a nearby state park. I joined a group of dedicated moon hikers. They don’t just walk into a cornfield and gaze up at a harvest moon. They climb a mountain in search of la Luna.

They warned that the hike is a challenging one although this day they wouldn’t be charging up and back at their usual fast pace. A steep trail on dirt and pavement lead us through forest and grassland, heavily scented by bay laurel. It was hot and dry, but the sun’s late afternoon shimmer turned everything golden. And even thought it was a definite cardio workout, my heart held and my lower back didn’t yelp and the others were encouraging as we approached the top of the world.

The summit produced views of the Pacific Ocean, San Francisco Bay and assorted famous Bay Area peaks. But best of all was the show performed by the sun and the moon. A blood orange sun hovered above Bodega Bay just as a silver moon bobbed up over the Napa Valley. A pink cloud layer, like a little girl’s pillow, held up the moon.

For a while there was a solar-lunar standoff. And then the sun bowed out, melting into lava-like streaks that poured into the ocean, leaving the sky to the proud plump moon. The whole thing was so well choreographed you had to applaud. People laughed and took photos of each other because how often do you get to pose with a full moon sitting on your shoulder?

The superstition is that during a full moon dogs bite and people get a little nutty, sometimes murderous, and women are wildly fertile. We know it pulls on the tides and some say it can cause earthquakes. Face to face I can attest that it makes you giddy and grateful for mountains and moonlight and all the dazzling beauty we get for free.

The descent was like walking down Nob Hill in San Francisco in high heels, hoping you don’t trip and go into a freefall. We were escorted to the bottom by the light of the moon, night animal noises and a flyover by bats. Many in the hardy group went off to dinner and a movie. I went home to a hot bath and was sore for days. But I’d made it to the moon and back and am now ready for the long nights, a cup of tea and a book.

Susan Swartz is an author and journalist in Sebastopol, California You can also read her at www.juicytomatoes.com and hear her Another Voice commentary on KRCB-FM radio on Fridays. Email is susan@juicytomatoes.com

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Tags: full_moon, Juicy_Tomatoes, moon_hike, San_Francisco, Susan_Swartz

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 8th, 2009 at 9:03 am and is filed under Environment, Healthy Living. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.