Last week I heard Paul Douglas, local meteorologist make the statement that November is the ‘gloomiest’ month of the year. I am not sure I had noticed this before. I would have put my money on March somehow. But, given that it is his job to know such things, I am taking his word for it. I am not sure if it was the power of suggestion but I am now noticing how gray it has been the last weeks.During the day the sky seems to be holding back something, like there is a big sheet that needs a good washing covering up what can’t be seen. Rather like the coverings thrown over furniture in rooms that are seldom used. With eyes squinting,people walk out into day after day of sameness…gray,gray and just a little more gray. Yesterday, today…tomorrow?

Is there any wonder we are so anxious to put up Christmas lights, to festoon our houses and yards with any color we can conjure up? Ruby red Santas, air-filled snowmen wearing bright blue scarves, shiny brown reindeer with glowing red noses, golden stars, bows of any color will do. They stand, somewhat sadly, on green lawns, an antidote to what hangs above. All this, to break up the gray of the daytime sky.

But nighttime is a different story all together. Steel gray-blue begins to move in at vesper time, slowly moving toward the deep, dark velvet blue of the nighttime. The dirty gray sheet is ripped away by unseen hands and ‘Ta-da!’ the kind of night sky dreams are made of. Stars glimmer, Venus and Mars are both visible against the rich, dark background. And the Moon….how can we describe the Moon?

Saturday night the full Moon shown so brightly it woke me up. Looking out I saw the hazy ring around its shining orb. Shooting out north, south, east and west, the rays formed the Celtic cross right there in the night sky. I imagined my ancestors seeing such a sight and heading to their cave to preserve its beauty on cold stone walls. Sunday night as we traveled across the Mississippi River the Moon, now golden yellow in its harvest fullness rose majestically above the horizon. There were no words to match its magnificence.

November days may draw us into a narrow eyed place……but that only leaves more room for the "AHHH!" of November nights.

"And God said, "Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs of seasons and for days and years, and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth. And it was so. God made the two great lights-the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night- and the stars. And God saw that it was good." Genesis 1:14-17