Friends in the Moonlight

It's been a very happy Full Moon week.

First there was Halloween on Tuesday, which I celebrated as Samhain, the Celtic New Year. There was drumming around the bonfire, winking jack-o-lanterns, and the traditional walking of the labyrinth in my friend's frosty meadow.

Then there was a meeting of my women's circle on Thursday--ginger tea and singing and spontaneous circle magic to celebrate the good side of the dark time of the year. A marvellous evening!

And then, just this past Saturday, it was time for my most favourite people in the whole world to meet for our annual UnBirthday celebration.

Ah, the UnBirthday weekend. Several years ago the four of us (me, Tai, Kim, and Pol) decided to forego the exchange of birthday presents in favour of a special time together, celebrating all of us at once with an always amazing dinner (this time Indian food at The Great Escape in Cumberland) and a sleepover party.

We even stayed up later than usual this time. After dinner and a long evening filled with much laughter and conversation and goofines (and limoncello and cheese fondue), we were sitting around in our pyjamas at Kim's house looking through old photographs of ourselves from fifteen years ago. There were some pretty hilarious ones (remember, that was the late eighties) and also some very beautiful ones.

For instance, there was one of Tai dancing in a blue dress in a sunny meadow of sea-grass that was so gorgeous it took my breath away. I need a copy of that one. In fact, turns out there was a whole stack of photos we all wanted copies of.

In particular there were pictures from a long-ago evening when my friends and I painted our faces in wild pagan swirls and spirals and draped ivy in our hair and generally got in touch with our inner nature-spirit.

"Why don't we take more pictures like that again!", said Kim.

Oh yes! Let's! It's two o'clock in the morning and there's a brilliant clear full moon waiting for us outside.

There was a mad rush to the bathroom mirror and on went the wildest eyeliner and darkest lipstick we could find. Hair was piled and braided on our heads this way and that. Pol painted ivy on her face, Kim drew curlicues below her eyes worthy of the Sandman comics, Tai painted fierce streaks on her cheeks, and the phases of the moon appeared in blue on my forehead.

Out we rushed into the night to giggle and pose in a sustained flurry of camera flashes beneath the ancient pear tree in the backyard. Oh, my friends and I can have such outlandishly fun times!