Moon Shower

Streams of moonlight lit the bedroom through the windows early this morning. As I slowly opened my eyes to this light, I picked up my phone to view the time... 03:36. Early? Indeed. Necessary? Indeed as well.

This morning I had a very important appointment to keep, waking nearly an hour and a half early is old hat for this fellow. I've managed to adapt to 2 to 4 hours of sleep a night.

Back to the moonlight which was eerily bathing the room. There was not enough light to discern color however. Everything was muted, I would liken it to multiple layers of embossed gray fabric giving shape to the various items that make up the average master bedroom- the bed, the dresser, the chest of drawers, the lingerie dresser, the nightstands with their various accouterments. Everything I saw was but a layer of something else.

Finally, I draw back the comforter, the heavy knit blanket and then my beloved flannel sheet to reveal my birthday suit to this moonlit room. Suddenly I realize I too have become part of the layers of the embossed gray fabric! Holding my hands outstretched before me, they ar red but an outline in gray. Moving my fingers I sense a childlike playfulness in how they appear, flowing side to side like water on a surf. Looking down at my feet, again more embossed fabric as I can barely make out my individual toes. I am enjoying this moonlight masquerade! I am hidden in the shadows of gray yet there in full view.

Time to head to the shower. Leaving the lights off, I close the bathroom door behind me so as to not wake my beloved from her slumber. I extend my arms in the darkness in search of the bank of switches on the wall, one for the dim lighting over the shower, one for the exhaust fan and one for the brilliant bank of lights over the mirror above the double bowl vanity. I finally locate the wall plate, run my fingers over the individual switches one by one, what do I energize? Do I illuminate the room gently with the soft, dim light over the shower? Do I break the beauty of the silence with the cacophony of the 20 plus year old vent fan, repleat with its slightly out of balance fan blade giving it a vibration one can bear for just enough time to shower and no more. And finally do I flip that last switch sending 110 volts of electrical energy to the six curly-q compact fluorescent light bulbs each capable if the equivalent of 100 watts? This one switch was capable of obliterating that ambiance afforded by the moon. Which switch? What combination thereof?

My decision..... no lights, no vent fan clamor! I slide open the door to the shower, rotate the large center mounted water control valve to hot, then back a wee bit to bearable and I step into my moonlit shower! Peace. Tranquility. An almost exquisite experience indeed. The moonlight gently falling through the skylights casts an ethereal pall over the shower as it tumbles and tussles with the rising steam of the shower. I am enveloped in a ghostly mist and all is otherworldly...

I finish scrubbing, rinse off, turn off the water and wrap a towel about my now shivering self. Toweling off in the moonlight, all dry and ready to dress I drop the towel to the floor and stand before that great full wall mirror, naked to the world yet not explicit in view. You see, the moonlight still is filling the room, it is still casting it's dim pall about everything including my form. On the mirror before me is little more than more of that embossed gray fabric but now the various shapes in the fabric are me, my form, my shape. They are ghostly in appearance. If I did believe in ghosts, this is what I would expect them to look like.