Long dreams of people, places, candles and leaks. At the end, a cousin cries out for another, to release him from jail. He escapes.

I wake in my bed, remembering the last dialogue of the dream. I turn over, reach down for my notebook, my pen, record the initial details of the dream. It’s 7am, the birds are beginning their chorus in the pine tree outside my window. The sky is brightening.

I emerge from bed, still clumsy from slumber. Feet against the hardwood floor, I cross the threshold of my door, walk along the hallway to the bathroom. Out the bathroom window, I can see the first pink of sunrise floating above the Oakland Hills in the east. The sky is patterned with clouds, blue-gray against a much lighter blue sky. The waning crescent moon, a sliver, a C, shines brightly before the full sun-rise, when she makes more of a contrast against the darker sky. The clouds roll over and obscure her, and roll away again. I watch just for a few moments. I catch myself smiling.

It’s taken me a week to adjust to daylight savings time, this time around. Many nights of going to bed too late, needing to sleep in. Even now, writing this, I find myself yawning. Part of me wants to slip back into slumber, see what new dreams will come. But there are things to do – this morning I want to stretch, meditate a little, go for a run. Have a full day at work, make progress on some of my big goals. Monday may be the moon’s day, but culturally, it has the force of so much solar energy – the planning, the doing, the executing. Already I can feel myself transitioning from the dreamland to my more action-oriented self. Snippets of poems repeat in my head, carrying me forward into the day.

Today I will eat butternut soup. Today I will try to focus on what is most important in my work, and forgive myself for all that remains undone. Today I will take a walk around my neighborhood with Sasha, and savor the California poppies that are blossoming, and give thanks for a life so full and blossoming.

Today’s moon status: Waning crescent, 21% illuminated.

No. 27/31 of the Moon Cycle project.