Chasing the Moon

by S.M. Soto

“In ancient times, it was said that the goddess Selene drove the moon across the sky. Each night, she followed Helios, the sun, to catch his fiery rays and reflect the light back to earth. One night on her journey, she looked down and saw Endymion sleeping in the hills. She fell in love with the beautiful shepherd. Night after night, she looked down on his gentle beauty and loved him more until one evening, she left the moon between the sun and the earth and went down to the grassy fields to lie beside him. For three nights, she stayed with him, and the moon, unable to catch the sun’s rays, remained dark. People feared the dark moon. They said it brought death and freed evil forces to roam the black night. Zeus, king of the gods, was angered by the darkness and punished Selene by giving Endymion eternal sleep. Selene returned to the moon and drove it across the night sky, but her love was too strong. She hid Endymion in a cave, and now, for three nights each lunar month, she leaves the moon to visit her sleeping lover and cover him with silver kisses. In his sleep, Endymion dreams he holds the moon.”

scene. It’s too much chaos for a girl like me. I prefer to be at home curled up with a good book or outside, staring up at the moon.

We are star-crossed lovers, never meant to be. He is the sun, and I am the moon. I’ll always chase him, and he’ll always run.

Sometimes in life you have to compromise, letting go of the things you love for the things that make sense.

It is easier to leave and pretend everything is okay than it is to stay and try to make myself believe love is a real, tangible thing. It isn’t. Love is a destroyer. It destroys everything in its path. I’m only eighteen, and after watching my parents, I know this. After pining after a guy who’s never noticed me, I know this better than anyone. Love is blind. And fucking stupid. It’s an emotion I refuse to waste my time on.

Just as in many aspects of life, things don’t always work out the way we plan or want them to, and with this phase of the moon, it helps you realize what you need to re-evaluate—so to speak—to give up or to change direction on whatever it was you set as your intention.

He’s hypnotizing. He’s all-consuming. He’s everything I knew he would be, yet somehow, he’s so much better. So much bigger. So much more.

But that is just the thing about chasing love—you can’t. Love comes to you when it’s ready. Love comes at the most inopportune times. And if you are lucky, love won’t find you at all.

It wasn’t until I gave birth to Luna that I learned what true love is. It is smiling in the face of agony. It is counting my lucky stars that out of all the souls in the universe, the moon brought her to me.

We’re like magnets, a negative and a positive drawn together. I feel my body leaning in to meet him, even when I know it’s wrong. Even when I know this is a mistake, I can’t seem to stop it from happening.

The laugh is soft and lilting. It’s the kind of laugh that you feel settle in your chest. The kind of laugh you can picture listening to for the rest of your life. It’s one of those laughs that is like fucking music to your ears. It’s the exact reason I turn around, trying to find the source.

many times, we look up into the night sky and just skim over the moon. What’s so special about something that’s there every night, right? But that night, it was different. I felt like, for once, I had someone I could talk to. Someone I could confide in. Someone who would be there to listen each night.

Because even though I know this a disaster in the making, I want him. I want him like I want the stars and the moon.

You’re the sliver of light we long for. You’re our moon, brightening our sky when everything is dark.”

He is the day. I am the night. He is the sun. I am the moon. We’re opposite souls, yet we’ve found our way to each other despite that. I just hope there is a way to coexist peacefully.

when it happened, but at some point, I started falling for the moon. For her beauty. Her light.

He’s always reaching for the stars, and don’t get me wrong, that’s not a bad thing, but he never stopped to look at the star that was closest to him—the brightest one.

You’re the one pure thing in this town. You’re the bright light I’ve been searching for my whole life. I just didn’t realize you were right there under my nose all along. I was too blind to see it then, but I’m not now.”

I’d chase the moon and bring it to you if I could. I’d handpick every goddamn star in the sky if it were possible, and I’d do it all for you.”

You’re the entire goddamn universe, consuming my orbit. Consuming my every thought.”

We belong to the cosmos, babe. Me and you? We were always meant to be.”

I love you, Endymion Black. Just as the sun loves the moon, and the stars love the night.”

Just never stop reaching for those stars, baby, and I’ll never stop chasing the moon.”

Our love is otherworldly. It always has been. We belong to the cosmos, forever me and my moon goddess.