Just twenty months apart, they grew up together. Whispered secrets through a grate between their bedroom walls. Shared stories at supper time. Shared chores on family camping vacations. One tent for the four of us. Four small blue canvas chairs always set up by the campfire site. We sat together talking. Sometimes stared at stars and moon; watched ember sparks glow. They always slept soundly when the lantern was doused, even in their teenage years. Cocooned in sleeping bags.
Years later, they live six-hundred miles apart. Raising their families. Busy with life. Those starry nights are part of who they are. Like deep and long roots sustaining the stately oak, those special times inform how they define family. I wonder if in their dreams, they sleep with the moon shared between them still. Far apart, but always akin.
Written for Prosery Monday at dVerse, the virtual pub for poets around the globe. Today, Merril is hosting and asks us to include the line “In their dreams, they sleep with the moon” in a story or memoir (some type of prose; cannot be poetry). The line is from Mary Oliver’s Death at Wild River.
lillian the home poet 
Such sweet memories plus the pictures to re-visit those days! Those days molded what family is all about! Bravo! They are very special people who chose special spouses and brought precious , gifted and thoughtful children into our family! Thanks for the walk back in time!
❤️ Nan Sent from my iPhone
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Thank you so much, Nan. LOVE you to the moon and back! 🙂
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I really like how you used the lines from the poem… to provide that link between the two who grew up in such a wonderful childhood… the moon is still the same.
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Thank you, Bjorn. I think one of the hardest things about this Covid for my husband and I has been the inability to be with our children. But, we are so so thankful for FaceTime! 🙂
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This is such a gorgeously written prose piece, Lillian! 💝 I believe they share the moon between them still 🙂
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Indeed………….I think they do 🙂
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Your title reminded me of the comic strips by the New Zealand cartoonist Kim Casali, which I loved when I was a teenager. I enjoyed your delightful retelling of memories of your children, Lill. I especially enjoyed the picture of you all around the campfire, staring at the stars and moon and watching embers sparks glow. How wonderful that they still are still close, despite the geographical distance. That’s all down to great parents.
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We are truly blessed. The hardest thing about this age of Covid is not being with our children. But…on the positive side, we do also live in the age of FaceTime! 🙂
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Precious bedrock upon which to build an adulthood. The photos are wonderful. It is so clear you were and are a loving mom. Glad your kids have that kind of a bond with each other ❤
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Thank you!
Our daughter married first and had only one person stand up for her, her brother. Our son married a few years later…a traditional wedding where his bride had, I think, 4 bridesmaids and her maid-of-honor, so our son needed to match that with groomsmen on his side, and his best man. He insisted his sister would be his best man. All the men wore black tuxes….the bridesmaids had beautiful burgandy gowns. My daughter had the same gown as the bridesmainds, but in black to blend in with the tuxes of the other groomsmen! She was listed as his “best person” 🙂
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I love this so much!
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Very cool trend setting 🙂
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Oh, this is so beautifully written. ❤
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How lovely! That’s such a beautiful depiction of family life. My eldest is about to fly the nest – i hope she has such warm memories to carry with her.
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I sighed, this is so lovely Lillian–prose and photos. It is special when siblings are so close–and parents, too. My daughters are three years apart, but they’ve always been super close, and people have thought they’re twins.
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From a truly loving family.
Prompt well met.
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Well done indeed, Lillian. I wish I’d had a family instead of the litter from which I sprang. Thanks for sharing so beautifully.
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i hope my two born twety two months apart will sleep with the moon in their dreams toghther as well.
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Beautiful family memories, and I’m sure the memories of each include the other, as well as Mom and Dad.
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A wonderfully nostalgic story! I can identify with all of it. We loved camping with our two boys. Yes, the memories are imbedded in all of us and the moon still makes us smile! Well done.
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How very sweet! Such a heartwarming piece. Thank you for sharing!
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I love this so much, Lillian. You have brought me back to MY camping days with my boys and my sister and her family. Wonderful.
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This touched me Lillian. We are on this spaceship earth for such a short period, and an even shorter time in the embrace of our immediate family. As we race through life, we think we have all the time in the world to tell these we love, what they mean to us. Then it’s gone, and not all we wanted to say, gets said. All we can hope is that they know.
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Raising three daughters was a daunting task, but our family memories were as fond as yours; and now besides Face Time, there’s 9 grandchildren .
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LOVE this precious prosery, Lillian! We didn’t go camping as kids but that sibling bond is strong between my brother and I…yes, even with 600 miles between our hearts are akin.
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This is beautiful. I hope my sons always maintain that closeness when they grow up: it means so much to me that they love one another!
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What beautiful memories you wove into this prompt!
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Good memories 🙂
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That’s a touching tale. I like the wrap up with the moon they yet share.
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So beautiful Lillian. I live the relationship between your children. Best Person! Live that. 😊. An awesome response to the prompt.
Pat
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