Once in a blue moon
At some point in our lives, we utter the phrase “once in a blue moon,” denoting an instance or event of immense importance. Or someone that brings back great, lasting memories. Blue moons come every two or three years, and for some people it signifies some important high (or low) point in their lives.
Blue moons aren’t blue, and does not have anything to do with human behavior. Personally, “blue moon” reminds me of Sydney Forrest’s song “Once In A Blue Moon”, and this snippet of text from an Inquirer column written around eight years ago:
“…This love episode got you in a mixed-up situation so that you couldn’t be sorry it happened, no matter how you felt about it at first. You find that the books you read suddenly mean more because you know what the writer is talking about in a much more personal way. When you hear music, you know when it comes straight from the musician’s heart. When you look at a great picture, it says something to you that you might never have noticed before. You can walk down the street and look at people’s faces and know why they look the way they do. It makes you kin to the whole world somehow.
“The point is, after that, nothing can ever hurt you much again. It has made you brave and restless and strong and sure of yourself and unafraid to be generous and tender. There’s a curious kind of knowledge that once in a blue moon, once in a lifetime, you loved someone better than you loved yourself.”
When I read that article, I just entered college. And I felt it was one of the most meaningful I’ve read at that time. And she felt that too. Now more than ever, I can read it with a much deeper understanding, and all the lines make perfect sense. It makes me proud of everything, of falling in love, of loving with all my heart. Love, as the great poets would describe it. I just had to share this, you know.
Tomorrow night, August 30, the Philippines will get the second full moon for this month, a blue moon. Go out, go to Sunken Garden and lie down on the grass. Look at the moon and say nothing—or say anything. And maybe, just maybe—fall in love.
No, I’m not unwell.
