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MONDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2002

"When the moon was teetering between first quarter and full half, I saw it hanging just above the housing units at Spirit Lake reservation Tuesday. I was awestruck. The moon looked like an orange peeled and sectioned, only it was the color of a hot, hot ember. She leaned back like a woman resting in a lounge chair after a long day of chasing children. As I drove across the undulating pavement toward Spirit Lake, the moon seemed to move across the sky toward the horizon almost as fast as some celestial spaceship.

This isn't the first time I have been caught in the magic of the moon over Spirit Lake. During the summer, when she has a bigger arc through the sky, she will sit just above the lake peering into the water like a young woman primping before a date. When the water is dead still, the lake becomes a mirror where only the moon can find her full and true face. When she is at her fullest and roundest, she reflects so much light you can see the night birds perched in the stark branches of the dead trees that stayed with the lake as it consumed them.

The moon always has been a grandmother to me because that is what I learned as a child."

Get the Story:
DORREEN YELLOW BIRD COLUMN: Prairie moon lights peaceful path across state (The Grand Forks Herald 12/14)

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