The Man In The Moon

When I was a little girl, my papaw always told me stories about the man who lived in the moon. He told me that the man in the moon was a grumpy old man who chose to live in the moon because he liked being alone, that he ate nothing but cheese and drank moonshine (of course, haha) and he said you could always talk to him at night when you looked up at the sky because he always heard you. Suffice it to say, I spent a lot of spring, summer, and fall nights chatting with the man in the moon. I believed he heard me. If he existed, he would be able to tell you all the things I was afraid of as a child, all my worries, insecurities, hopes and dreams. He would also be able to tell you that I was a lightning bug catching machine. Every single time I drew a picture of the moon, I always included the man in the moon. No one else would have recognized that it was a man. It looked like I had just drawn some "shadows" or something in my moon. But me and papaw? We knew that it was the man. And that's all that mattered.

I wish life was still so simple. So simple that I believed there was a man in the moon. So simple that I believed all the countless, far-fetched tales my papaw told me as a child. Sometimes at night, I still look up at the moon and see the man. Sometimes I even talk to him. I guess I always will. But I wouldn't trade my papaw's story for anything. He always had a way of telling me the simplest stories that made my whole face light up with a smile. And I've carried these stories with me my whole life. I'm sure if I had a child, I would be telling them these same stories.

This week was my papaw's birthday. I love him and I miss him every single day. Not a day goes by that I don't think about him. And more often than not, something flies out of my mouth that sounds just like something he would have said. In my eyes, my papaw is a hero and one of the greatest men to ever live. So...to my papaw in heaven...and to the man in the moon...thank you for giving me a unique imagination and such happy childhood memories...I love you.