Cold Moon

Everything is illuminated

I was in Santa Cruz this week to celebrate my mom’s 80th birthday. Two years ago my mom was diagnosed with glioblastoma (an aggressive brain cancer) and was given 10 months to live. She an outlier having long surpassed that first prediction and although she is very ill from chemo and radiation she rallied and we took her to dinner at Shadowbrook.

My mom (on the right) with her best friend

As the full December moon was rising in the sky above Soquel Creek we took the cable car down to the restaurant to celebrate my mom’s 80th trip around the sun.

My mom’s a true Sagittarius, extroverted, chatty and loves a good party. She is happiest when surrounded by people. I remember as a kid waiting for hours while she talked on the phone to her friends.

Before I headed home I drove past the house where I grew up in a neighborhood called Opal Cliffs that is a few blocks from Pleasure Point. The small house with a flat roof has a main bedroom that used to be the garage. Behind the house are train tracks and a fast moving train would rumble the house at least once a day.

My childhood friend and I feeding the ducks at Corcoran Lagoon in Santa Cruz in 1974.

My best childhood friend lived on the same long street and our moms used to stand out in front of our houses as we walked toward each other to meet up in the middle. This was a street with fast traffic and we were probably 4 or 5 years old, but it was the 70s and the fact that our moms came outside to watch us—when most kids ran wild—was rare.

After dinner they brought my mom a chocolate truffle on a plate with a card and single candle. I wondered if she made a wish when she blew that lone candle out. I thought about what I wished for.

She and I likely wished for the same thing: a little more time.

There’s never enough time to do it all and time is speeding up.

The last full moon of 2025 is the third supermoon of the year. The Cold Moon is a bright winter moon that takes a high path making it more visible.

Everything is illuminated and I see my childhood more clearly now. I see my mom who had kids at a young age and was not supported. She was studying art in college, but dropped out to marry my dad.

I see her laughing on the phone with the long cord in our old crappy kitchen. I see her standing on our busy road holding my sister while I walked toward my friend.

I see her at age 80 glowing at her birthday party.

I see her blowing out the candle.