“And here I am holding on to you , and you've got the moon.”
—Josh Ritter
“You’ve Got the Moon” acrylic on canvas, 16x20 inches, March 2010
My son Morgan turns ten years old today! I’ve been reading my old diaries from the week leading up to his birth. He was ten days “late” coming into the world, and that period of waiting felt dream-like. Time took on a different meaning.
“All around me I feel very relaxed and content, and maybe a shade melancholy,” I wrote in my diary, the day before Morgan finally came into the world. “I don’t know why. The end of something old, the start of something new. A big transition is about to take place…I hope I can handle all that comes my way. I know that my body knows how to birth this baby…I must wait for the right time…”
I remembering listening to the Josh Ritter song, “You’ve Got the Moon,” over and over again, while I worked on this painting of a big full moon and a big full belly.
“You’ve Got the Moon” painting detail
We ate May down to the rind
Asked the moon for another helping
It's getting on past suppertime
Lights are low and it was evening
Pull your dress up to your knees
Out in the fields we'll go walking
Just the tall grass and the trees
Silhouettes and crickets singing
And here I am holding on to you
And you've got the moon
See the leaves fall as they turn
Green into a golden evening
Slowly, so there is no change
It does not feel like the end of something
And here I am holding on to you
And you've got the moon
Stars and satellites and clouds
Everything tonight is floating
And I am too so I hold your hand
And up above the moon is rowing
And here I am holding on to you
And you've got the moon.
Sketch of my son when he was 8 days old…
Related Blog Posts…
* Baby Sketches… (I made many sketches of my children when they were babies)
* Paintings of Mothers (paintings by other artists)
* My Son (a poem I wrote, and a portrait of my son)