I’m thinking of you at the full moon

This article is for all lovers who are far apart from each other – maybe due to travelling, maybe because of personal circumstances.

Sometimes we have to learn not to experience geographical distance as inner distance. But although it is said, love surmounts time and space, one still has a longing for closeness, which is difficult to push aside, despite all sensible thoughts. A kiss over the phone is simply not the same as the moment when lips touch.

So to make distance more bearable, a common ground can help, something that can give the longing a sense of direction, a special moment in time that accompanies this journey like a shared promise. What lies closer than to chose the moment of the full moon to think of each other. Over the years, we have received many letters from people who have made this promise to each other.

The movie »Dear John« from 2010, reflects exactly this. The American soldier John and his lover Savannah have been separated due to John’s stationing and mission in Iraq. John writes in one of his letters:

»But it’s a full moon here tonight which makes me think of you, because I know no matter what I’m doing, no matter where I am, this moon will always be the same size as yours, half a world away.«

There is a further reference in literature by the German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832). In his full moon poem »Dem aufgehenden Vollmonde« (»To the rising full moon«) from 25th August 1828 [*], he writes of his lover from the distance, whose love he feels reassured of by looking at the full moon:

»… Zeugtest mir, daß ich geliebt bin,
Sei das Liebchen noch so fern …«

[Translation:
»… Showing me how loved I am,
No matter how far my Beloved may be …«]

It is presumed that this poem was directed at Marianne von Willemer (1784-1860), the wife of a befriended banker, who Goethe has met 13 years earlier several times and probably had fallen in love with. During one of their meetings in September 1815 [**] they both had apparently made the promise to think of each other at the full moon. In Goethe’s collection of poems »West-Eastern Divan« (1819) this has also been mentioned:

»… Euch im Vollmond zu begrüßen.
Habt ihr heilig angelobet,
Dieses ist der Augenblick.«
(»Vollmondnacht«, Book Suleika, Part 110)

[Translation:
»… To greet you at the full moon,
you praise sacred,
this is the moment.«]

We would like to encourage all people who are separated from each other to think of each other during the full moon. If you have entered to receive our full moon memo, you will be reminded monthly of this event. And your love has from now on a silent friend in the night sky.

[*] The full moon was on Monday, 25th August 1828, 05:30:00 am
[**] The full moon was on Monday, 18th September 1815, 04:08:06 pm