344. On the occasion of a Strawberry Moon

Twenty-one years ago today, at 3:03 pm, I became an uncle - for the first time. Lindsey Shea Noble was born this day in 1987 at Audubon Hospital to my brother Kevin and his girlfriend Dawn, the first of their two (and his six and her three) children. I was there and I was awed, but also thankful that this new fragile but very healthy creature was their's and not mine. She would be my niece and that was something I could deal with, and have pretty successfully I think. Another of Lindsey's uncles was also there for her birth, a very young man named Jordan, about 6 years old as I remember. At one point when he was getting fidgetty, I offered to take him down to the cafeteria and buy him a coke. As we were going through the cashier's line, he blurted out to her, "We're having a baby!" Thinking I was the father, the lady congratulated me. I started to explain but Jordan interrupted saying, "He's not the dad. We're uncles-in-law." Out of the mouth of babes . . . .

The year Lindsey was born, the Moon was one week into its waning from Full to New, having come that year in June on the 11th. Today marks the Full Moon for the month of June, which is sometimes called the Strawberry Moon as it is the time of the Strawberry Harvest. Another name for it is the Honey Moon as bees make their way from plant to plant and hive to hive producing the mysterious elixir of the gods. Tonight, tomorrow night, and the next will have long hours of this bright moon overlooking Mother Earth. Coinciding with these long nights are the long days we are having, days which will reach their longest the day after tomorrow on the occasion of the Summer Solstice, at least in the Northern Hemisphere, on the 20th. Friday will be the night known to lover's of the Bard as Midsummer's Night, a night fraught with magic. It is the night Robin Goodfellow, or Puck, that "merry wanderer of the night, a shrewd and knavish sprite," makes his rounds having fun and wreaking havoc.

Speaking of Shakespeare, tonight is opening night of this year's Free Will in Central Park, the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival. Julius Caesar takes the stages for a run, followed by Pericles in July. The perfromances begin at 8:00 pm in Louisville's Central Park at S. 4th Street and W. Magnolia Avenue. "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears!"

The Midsummer's Night Celebration Festival in Tara, Ireland