#90 A WOMAN'S BRIEFS -- TODAY'S MOON
March 1, 2026 Sunday
It isn’t often that I post a blog the day after having posted a blog but it seems appropriate now.
Yesterday, my friend who will remain nameless here because I dare not call for permission to use his name. He, his wife, and their cat sleep while I am awake at 4:45a.m. Yesterday he called my attention to the waxing gibbous moon sneaking up in the east behind the cover of sunlight and a few light clouds. Gibbous, from the Latin “Gibbosus” meaning humpback, seems an unfair description of a lovely orb, but it has been used since the 14th century, so this is no time to pick a fight.
“I’ll take my time here,” Sister Moon seemed to be saying. “I’ll bide my time while Brother Sun has center stage.”
The moon is 97% illuminated today. It is 13.07 days old since its last new moon phase. If, like me, you don’t remember, the moon has eight phases that take 29.53 days to complete as she orbits the Earth cleverly rotating in such a way that she never shows us her backside. You can see that I am impressed.
Moon says, “Some (like Barb’s attentive friend) will notice my climbing through the sky during the day then edging to the west, but most will not.” Moon doesn’t mind. Moon lives a considered life, as Stoics like to say. Moon does her job, completes her journeys, remains dependable, regardless of praise.
Sister Moon was in Leo, and in darkness, this morning when I stepped to our balcony to feel the weather. OH! How she was!! Not Leo of astrology, but the real Leo of constellations, Leo, stars of our galaxy briefly hosting Sister Moon in all her glory. No quiet presence now, Sister Moon shouted her beauty, daring us to notice before she slips away in the west with a nod to her fiery brother, Sun, stomping on the East with his determined task of owning the sky.
Here she is; or was, for us this morning, in case you were still sleeping. She will bring us her full glory on Tuesday. You might want to get up early to see her in the west when she is at her best.
WAXING GIBBOUS MOON
