Grandmother Sun

A Cosmic Embrace

The moon was the youngest son of Mars.

Jupiter and Pluto were his uncles.

Mercury and Saturn, his aunts.

Neptune was his sister.

The moon had millions of cousins in the sky.

He could not remember all of their names.

The sun was his grandmother.

The moon loved his grandmother so much.

"I just want to give you a hug," he would say when her rays would pass over him.

"This is my way of hugging you," she would reply, "shining my rays upon you."

"No, I want a real hug, like the humans do below," replied the moon.

"Well, let me see," said the grandmother. "I'm not sure if that's possible. It might upset the balance of the universe."

The moon frowned.

He loved his grandmother so much.

He just wanted a real hug.

"Let me see what I can do. I have an idea," said the sun, and she whispered it into the moon's ear.

One special night, the sun pulled together all of her energies and so did the moon.

The moon came directly between the sun and the earth.

All of the sun's rays wrapped around the moon, fully blocking the rays to the earth.

The sun hugged the moon with all her might.

At long last, grandmother and grandson were united.

"I can only hold on so long," exclaimed the sun.

"Me too," said the moon with a beautiful moonlit smile.

"We'll hug each other once in a blue moon," replied Grandmother Sun with a wink.

And so they did.

And so they did.

A story by Pemba Umoja